SAR polarimetric features of agricultural areas

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The potential of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) in monitoring soil and vegetation parameters is being evaluated in extensive investigations, worldwide. A significant experiment on this subject, the Multi-sensor Airborne Campaign (MAC 91), was carried out in the summer of 1991 on several sites in Europe, based on the NASA/JPL polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (AIR-SAR). The site of Montespertoli (Italy) was imaged three times during this campaign at P-, L-, and C-band and at different incidence angles between 20° and 50°. Calibrated full polarimetric data collected over the agricultural area of this site have been analysed and a critical analysis of the information contained in linear and circular co-polar and cross-polar data has also been carried out. Here a guideline for the formulation of crop discrimination algorithms is suggested. It has been found that P-band data are rather effective only in discriminating broad classes of agricultural landscape, while finer detail can be obtained by integrating data at L- and C-bands. Indeed at L-band well developed ‘broad leaf’ crops can be separated from the others, whereas at C-band discrimination seems feasible in the case of moderate growth as well. Finally the sensitivity of backscattering coefficient to soil moiture and vegetation biomass is discussed.

This publication has 18 references indexed in Scilit: