Ag Leader SMS Basic and Advanced Manual - Manual (Page 153)

Reference Information
Glossary of Terminology
The following is a listing of terminology used in the software and the definitions for that terminology:
Attribute
Attributes are defined as frequently changing data and are used to convey actual values, logged or entered, for an
operation. So yield data that is logged continuously and is varying from logged value to logged value, would be an
attribute for example.
Property
Properties are defined as infrequently changing data used to define other management and data items. Names for
Farms, Fields, and Loads are examples of predefined properties within the system. An example would be to create a
property called Tillage Type and then add this property to any Load/Region that you wanted to track different tillage
types that were used for that load/region, the point being that the Tillage Type is not varying per logged sample for an
operation but instead applies to all logged data in the selected load/region.
Dataset
The base level of data in the system, represented as a Load or Region. All data read into the system is stored in some
form of a dataset.
Kriging
An interpolation method for generating unknown values from known ones by developing and applying a weighted
moving average. Weighting factors are arrived at through a semi-variogram.
Inverse Weighted Distance (IWD)
An interpolation method that averages local cell values but also takes into account distance of neighboring cells. The
farther away sample data is from a location the less influence that data has on the calculation of a value at that
location. IWD is very useful for dense datasets such a yield data because of how fast the data can be processed and
the fact that large amounts of consistently spaced data exist.
Correlation
Used to describe the observed relationship between instances of two items. A systematic pattern can be seen in the
occurrences of events that are correlated. When the events involve numbers, a positive correlation means that as one
increases, the other increases as well. A negative correlation means that as one increases, the other decreases.
Correlation does not imply a cause in any way. In other words, just because two items are correlated does not mean
that one causes another, or has anything to do with the other - correlations deal only with observed instances of items,
and any further conclusions cannot be inferred from correlation alone. Strong correlation, however, does often warrant
further investigation to determine the cause of the relationship.
Spatial
Any item that refers to or describes a space, such as a farm or a field. Most spatial data contains position data that
links it to s specific spatial location, such as a yield point.
Semi-Variogram
A plot of the variance of a dataset and/or a theoretical model versus the distance. A semi-variogram is used to show
the correlation of data over a distance and its relation to a theoretical model that can be applied to the data during an
interpolation process such as Kriging.
Intersection
The area or length that two or more objects have in common, thus overlapping each other in some fashion.
Intersection can be used to only select areas or lengths that overlap each other or it can be used divide objects into
new objects based on the common areas or lengths.
Normalize Data
Process of reassigning the values in a dataset to a fixed or common scale. Normalizing datasets allows for the
comparison of results across different data value ranges, such as when trying to compare corn and soybean yields in a
field.
Raster Data
A data format that stores data in grid cells in row and column formatting. Images are an example of raster data. Raster
datasets can allow for faster access to the data contained in each cell, such as when running queries and selecting
data on a map.
Vector Data
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