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clms_vlcc_bare-soil-after_europe_10m_yearly_v1·dataset

How long fields stay bare after harvest (Copernicus)

CLMS VLCC Bare Soil After (CPBSA) Europe 10m yearly V1
biosphere ESA ESA Copernicus active
In plain English

What it measures. Counts the number of days each crop field is left bare after the main annual crop is harvested, from 1 up to 275 days.

How it's made. ESA Copernicus derives it yearly at 10-metre resolution across the EEA-38 countries by detecting crop emergence and harvest events from satellite data.

How & where you'd use it. Helps assess soil erosion and nutrient-leaching risk and supports policies that encourage cover crops and healthier soils.

What's measured

CLMSCopernicusEuropeRasterLand coverCroplandBare SoilCPLand use

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2017-01-01 → ongoing
  • Spatial extent-180, -90, 180, 90

What you can do with it

  • Map vegetation, forests and biomass
  • Monitor ecosystem productivity and carbon
  • Support habitat and biodiversity studies
Official description

The Bare Soil After (CPBSA) dataset indicates the duration of the bare soil period after the harvest of the main annual crop, expressed in days (range: 1–275). The bare soil period is determined by the detection of emergence and harvest events within a given year. Since no specific bare soil detection algorithm is employed, there may be instances where the field is not completely bare during this period, due to weed growth, residual crop remnants, or agricultural activities such as fertilisation or ploughing. The bare soil period is defined only for the duration within the reference year. This dataset is provided annually starting with 2017 in 10-metre rasters (fully conformant with the EEA reference grid) in 100 × 100 km tiles covering the EEA-38 countries. The HRL Bare Soil After product is part of the European Union's Copernicus Land Monitoring Service. This dataset includes data from the French Overseas Territories (DOMs).

Get the data

copernicus_access.py
# ESA Copernicus Data Space — open STAC API (free account)
from pystac_client import Client

cat = Client.open("https://stac.dataspace.copernicus.eu/v1")
search = cat.search(
    collections=["clms_vlcc_bare-soil-after_europe_10m_yearly_v1"],   # add _cog or _nc for a format variant
    bbox=(-10, 35, 30, 60),             # your area (W,S,E,N)
    datetime="2024-01-01/2024-12-31",
)
items = list(search.items())            # then read assets with rioxarray / xarray
Browsing the Copernicus STAC is open; downloading bytes needs a free Copernicus Data Space account.