Dear DSSAT Users,

During the last few months you have seen several e-mail exchanges related
to DSSAT V4.0. We have tested this new version in several crop modeling
training workshops that have been held in Thailand and the USA; we really
appreciate the patience and cooperation of the workshop participants. We
now feel that this new version of DSSAT is ready for release and official
distribution.  Purchase and upgrade information can be found on the ICASA
web site http://www.icasa.net/dssat/order.html. All people who have placed
an order with ICASA this year as well as workshop participants should
already have received a copy.

DSSAT Version 4.0 is an upgrade of the DSSAT Version 3.5 system. DSSAT
Version 4 has been completely redesigned and is now Windows-based. All
shell, application programs and data entry and analysis tools have been
rewritten to be compatible with the latest Windows standards. In addition,
all crop models were combined into the Cropping System Model (CSM), which
is based on a modular modeling approach. CSM uses one set of code for
simulating soil water, nitrogen and carbon dynamics, while crop growth and
development are simulated with the CERES, CROPGRO, CROPSIM and SUBSTOR
modules. The CENTURY-based soil carbon and nitrogen model for improved
performance in low input agricultural systems and for simulation carbon
sequestration was added as a separate soil module to CSM. The crop models
of DSSAT v3.5 are included in DSSAT v4 as legacy models for user comparison
and analysis.

DSSAT v4 includes:
- More than 18 different crops simulated with CSM, including maize, wheat,
rice, barley, sorghum, millet, soybean, peanut, dry bean, chickpea, cowpea,
faba bean, velvet bean, potato, tomato, bell pepper, cabbage, bahia and
brachiaria and bare fallow.

- The DSSAT v3.5 legacy models, including cassava, sunflower, sugarcane,
taro, tanier, and pineapple.

- Identical soil modules for the simulation of the soil water, nitrogen and
carbon balances.

- The CENTURY-based soil carbon and nitrogen module.

- The Crop Management Data tool XBuild for entering and editing of
experimental data.

- The Soil Data tool SBuild for entering and editing of soil data.

- A new Weather Data Manager WeatherMan for entering, analyzing and
generating weather and climate data.

- The Experimental Data tool ATCreate for entering and editing detailed
growth, development and yield data as well as soil water, nitrogen, and
carbon measurements.

- The Graphics program GBuild for graphical display of simulated and
experimental data.

- A seasonal analysis program for analysis of biophysical and economic data
for single season simulations.

- A sequence analysis program for analysis of biophysical and economic data
for crop rotations and multi-season experiments.

- The Introductory Simulation Tool ICSim for simple simulations and
application of models as a teaching tool.

- The Evaluation and Diagnostics Program STATS for statistical analysis of
simulated and measured vegetative and reproductive development and yield
and yield component data.

- EasyGrapher, a simple graphing program for simulated data.

- The Weather Analogue program ANNA for analysis of weather trends.

- The CROPTest program for comparison and analysis of different versions of
the crop simulation models.


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Gerrit Hoogenboom
Professor
Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering
The University of Georgia
165 Gordon Futral Court
Griffin, Georgia 30223-1797, USA

1-770-229-3438 (voice); 1-770-228-7218 (fax)
mailto:[log in to unmask]
www.Georgiaweather.net
www.GerritHoogenboom.com
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