The average NDVI profile indicates that crop condition in the Loess region is better than last year's and also above the five-year average. The main crops are spring wheat and winter wheat. Winter wheat was sowed in October and will be harvested in earlyJune. During the monitoring period, rainfall and temperature exceeded average by 76% and 0.8 degrees, respectively. Radiation, however, was decreased by 4%,which is correlated with excess precipitation. The additional detail provided by the NDVI clusters and profiles shows that the crop condition fluctuated widely over the monitoring period. However, at the end of April, condition was better than the five-year average in most parts of the region, especially in the northeast of Henan province. CALF increased 2% when compared with the five-year average, which indicates more land is cropped. The potential biomass was 54percent above the average, especially in the north of Shaanxi and south o Hebei provinces.

Figure4.9. Crop condition China Loess region, January-April 2015

(a)Crop condition development graph based on NDVI

(b)Spatial NDVI patterns compared to 5YA                                            (c)NDVI profiles

(d)Maximum VCI                                                                                        (e)Biomass