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clms_vlcc_main-crop-duration_europe_10m_yearly_v1·dataset

Length of the main crop's growing season in Europe (Copernicus)

CLMS VLCC Main Crop Duration (CPMCD) Europe 10m yearly V1
biosphere ESA ESA Copernicus active
In plain English

What it measures. Measures how many days the main annual crop grew in each field, from emergence to harvest, ranging from about 40 days up to a full year. Only annual cropland is covered.

How it's made. Produced yearly from 2017 onward using detected planting and harvest dates from satellite data, by the EU's Copernicus Land Monitoring Service at 10-metre resolution across Europe's 38 countries, including French overseas territories.

How & where you'd use it. Shows how crop seasons shift with extreme weather and climate change, helping farmers, agronomists, and policymakers spot trends at regional and national scale.

What's measured

CLMSCopernicusEuropeRasterLand coverCroplandMain CropGrowing SeasonCPLand 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 Main Crop Duration (CPMCD) dataset provides information on the length of the main annual crop growing season, expressed in days (range: 40–366). The duration is derived from the detected emergence and harvest dates of the main growing season. Information on growing season length and its variations over time offers valuable insights into how crop seasons are affected by extreme weather conditions and climate change at regional and national level. This layer is only generated for pixels classified as annual cropland. 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 Main Crop Duration 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_main-crop-duration_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.