Field change detection and alerting system using field average crop trend

A method for detecting changes in an agricultural field using one or more candidate fields having one or more attributes that correspond to one or more attributes of the agricultural field, the method comprising:

• providing a computer system comprising a memory storing programming instructions thereon and at least one processor operably coupled to the memory so as execute the programming instructions and using the computer system to:
• (i) acquire a time series of target images of the agricultural field;
• (ii) for each target image, calculate a vegetation index value representative of the target image to produce a time series of vegetation index values of the target images;
• (iii) calculate a target trend line from the time series of the vegetation index values of the target images;
• (iv) acquire a time series of candidate images of said one or more candidate fields having one or more attributes that correspond to one or more attributes of the agricultural field;
• (v) for each candidate image, calculate a vegetation index value representative of the candidate image to produce a time series of the vegetation index values of the candidate images;
• (vi) calculate an expected trend line from the time series of the vegetation index values of the candidate images;
• (vii) calculate a trend difference value as a difference between the target trend line and the expected trend line at spaced apart intervals of time;
• (viii) calculate a representative value based upon an amount of change in the trend difference value by comparing the trend difference value of a current interval to the trend difference value of a previous interval;
• (ix) calculate a representative value by comparing the target trend line to the expected trend line,
• (x) determine a deviation between the target trend line and the expected trend line when the representative value meets an alert threshold of alert criteria;
• and
• (xi) in response to the determination of the deviation, generating a product comprising one of a graphic, chart, or drawing for detecting the deviation as an anomaly in the agricultural field, wherein the product is distributed through the computer system to enable a data driven decision to modify and streamline agricultural operation of the agricultural field.