W artykule została przedstawiona metodyka utworzenia Systemu Oceny Warunków Wzrostu Roślin w Polsce, bazującego na operacyjnym wykorzystaniu zdjęć satelitarnych NOAA AVHRR. Opisano poszczególne etapy opracowania tego systemu w ramach wspólnego, polsko– kanadyjskiego projektu oraz zaprezentowano pierwsze wyniki jego wykorzystania do monitorowania rozwoju roślin uprawnych w Polsce w okresach wegetacyjnych 1997 i 1998 roku.
The succeeding stages of the works on creating system for crop condition assessment in Poland, based on use of NOAA images, were presented in the article. At first part of this article hardware and software needed for proper functioning of the system was described, as well as the works on software adaptation to Polish conditions were characterised. Next, the consecutive phases of creating crop condition assessment system were presented, namely: collection and processing of historical satellite NOAA images, analysis of archival images, acquisition and processing of NOAA AVHRR satellite data for 1997 and 1998 vegetation periods, preparation of GIS database for making spatial analyses and production of final outputs from the system, i.e. maps, graphs and images, which inform about state of crops in Poland. Results of using the created system for assessment of crop development within 1997 and 1998 vegetation periods were presented in the second part of the article. Detailed analysis of variability of vegetation indices on the whole territory of Poland was done in temporal and regional aspect. Comparative analysis of crop development in 1998, as compared with normal and previous year, was also conducted. It was found among others, that crop growth conditions at first phase of 1998 vegetation period were better than in corresponding phase of normal year for almost all regions of Poland. Results of comparative analysis were presented in the form of sequences of maps, which illustrate changes of vegetation index for particular voivodships within the whole vegetation period.