The APSIM Met Module requires parameters to specify the climate of the site for each APSIM time step. The APSIM MET module provided daily meteorological information to all modules within an APSIM simulation. The package offers the possibility to select a range of grids (5 km × 5 km resolution) and years producing various types of output files: CSV, MET (for APSIM), WTH (for DSSAT) and soon JSON (which will become part of BestiaPop’s API in the future).Ĭurently, the code downloads data from two different climate databases:
We developed BestiaPop (a spanish word that translates to pop beast), a Python package which allows model users to automatically download SILO’s (Scientific Information for Land Owners) or NASAPOWER gridded climate data and convert this data to files that can be ingested by Crop Modelling software like APSIM or DSSAT. Moreover, source data providers like SILO or NASA POWER are usually neutral in the type of data output files they provide as part of their API services which leads to a gap between source raw data and processed data required by crop modelling suites to develop their models. However, Crop Modelling software expects input data to be encapsulated in custom file formats ( MET, WTH, etc.) which don’t conform to a common standard and require various customizations, depending on the prediction engine that generates crop models. BestiaPop: A python package to automate the extraction and processing of climate data for crop modelling ¶Ĭlimate data is an essential input for crop models to predict crop growth and development using site-specific (point) or gridded climate data.