Proximal remote sensing data (ultrasonic, time-of-flight-laser, multispectral reflectance) supporting on-farm measurement of cover crop performance in the Mid-Atlantic, Southeast, and Midwest, United States, 2020-2024

This data release contains processed scan data from the Active Canopy Sensor (ACS) -214 proximal sensing instrument associated with 1242 cover crop biomass samples from 2020 - 2024 across 13 states. The ACS-214 is an active proximal sensing device equipped with its own light-emitting red and near-infrared spectral reflectance sensors, a time-of-flight laser, and an ultrasonic sensor. These data were collected as a part of the Precision Sustainable Agriculture’s national on-farm network, with two main hubs located in Maryland and North Carolina. The ACS-214 data included in this data release are summarized by plot polygons or 10m circular buffer to generate the metrics used to estimate cover crop biomass. The geospatial coordinates of each sample have been redacted to protect the privacy of on farm collaborators. Access to coordinates may be granted after contacting the authors directly to discuss the use and privacy of locations and correponding biophysical data. 

The data, as well as the processes used to prepare and analyze them, are discussed in detail in a related interpretive summary:
Jennewein, et al., 2025. Multi-sensor proximal remote sensing for cover crop biomass estimation at high and moderate spatial resolutions. Accepted in Smart Agricultural Technology, Volume 12, December 2025, 101201 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atech.2025.101201

Contents:
1.Metadata file titled - "1 Proximal remote sensing data supporting on-farm measurement of cover crop performance.xml": metadata file describing dataset parameters
2.Comma delimited file of data titled - "ACS-214_summarized_outputs_and_cover_crop_biomass_and_sample_details.csv": comma delimited spreadsheet containing cover crop biomass, sampling date, species, state sampled in, and summarized ACS-214 outputs.