pheno_opt_rice a rice phenology calibration program

pheno_opt_rice is a program that calibrates phenology parameters. pheno_opt_rice has been designed for rice, but can be adapted for calibrating phenology of other crops.

Unique features of the model are that:

1. All phenological parameters are calibrated simultaneously (base temperature, optimum temperature, temperature sum). Etc This new, many of the older calibration programs assume fixed base temperature and optimum temperature etc and then calibrate the temperature sum only
2. It can do the calibration for multiple sites in one go, but only one variety at a time
3. It quantifies if there is correlation between phenology prediction error and temperature. So it will tell you if the model is also accurate at higher temperatures and lower temperatures and up to what temperature range the calibration is valid
4. It also shows near optimal solutions, this provides info on accuracy of parameter estimates
5. All code is open and scientific background is in a published paper

Pheno_opt_rice was developed by Tianyi Zhang and Pepijn van Oort, with equal contribution from us both. It was a lot of work for the both of us. Please, when you use the calibration program please acknowledge our work by citing our work:

van Oort, P.A.J., Zhang, T., de Vries, M.E., Heinemann, A.B., Meinke, H. 2011. Correlation between temperature and phenology prediction error in rice (Oryza sativa L.). Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 151(12): 1545-1555. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2011.06.012

Zhang, T., Zhu, J., Yang, X., 2008. Non-stationary thermal time accumulation reduces the predictability of climate
change effects on agriculture. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 148 (10), 1412–1418. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2008.04.007