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Despite numerous searches, we were unable to find a definitive answer to your question. However, we did pick up some interesting information along the way... A search on the long-winded phrase, "aerial photography of landforms" led us to a detailed academic document titled Aerial Photography and Remote Sensing. We read an entry on "texture" in a section devoted to the interpretation of aerial photographs and learned:
The impression of "smoothness" or "roughness" of image features is caused by the frequency of change of tone in photographs. It is produced by a set of features too small
to identify individually. Grass, cement, and water generally appear "smooth", while a forest canopy may appear "rough". This didn't exactly explain the patchwork quilt of patterns you described, so we tried a different search expression: "mowing patterns." This returned an assortment of pages by and for greenskeepers and turf specialists. A page about mowing from the University of Illinois Turfgrass Program offered some further insight. For instance, we read that altering the mowing pattern on putting greens and other playing fields causes
grasses to grow more upright, reducing the growth of grain, which alters the path of a putted golf ball. On the other hand, mowing patterns on athletic playing fields are purely aesthetic and serve only to create visual interest. These different patterns are created by altering the direction of the mowing, the precise mower adjustments, and the sharpness of the blade. Fertilization and irrigation systems can also affect the look of the land. Based on the information we gathered, we would venture an educated guess that the patterns you noticed are a result of crop cultivation. Maybe what you saw from the air was an early harvest of hay. Just don't ask us about crop circles.
[Editor's Note: In a last ditch effort to come up with an answer, we emailed a friend who used to work for Future Farmers of America. She wasn't 100% certain, but she did offer both "strip cropping" and "intercropping" as agricultural practices that create noticeable patterns on farmland. Sure enough, searches on those terms turned up useful results. We found a guide to intercropping, a nice summary of countour and strip farming, and even a batch of strip cropping photos from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Researching a little further, we determined that those farming techniques are used to boost crop production and lessen soil erosion. Worthy ambitions, both!]
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