A method can include receiving sensor data from at least three different types of sensor situated in the geographic area, the types of sensors including an air temperature sensor, relative humidity sensor, dewpoint sensor, soil moisture sensor, soil temperature sensor, average wind speed sensor, maximum wind speed sensor, and a rainfall sensor, producing a feature vector including a time series of values corresponding to the received sensor data, and using a neural network, estimating the physical characteristics, the physical characteristics including at least one of (a) a leaf wetness, (b) a solar radiation, (c) an evapotranspiration, (d) a future soil moisture, and (e) a future soil temperature.