Multi temporal C band polarimetric SAR data for agricultural crop classification

Abstract

From various earth observation systems available today, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is one of the most powerful imaging system, with an ability to provide data even under cloud cover conditions. As radar signal is sensitive to various types of land covers, crops and its orientation, it has the potential to become an important means for crop and landcover monitoring. Among various SAR techniques, polarimetry is becoming one of the important tool for various crop and land cover investigation due to its superiority in discriminating abilities. In view of importance of polarimetric SAR techniques, it is necessary to understand the role of SAR polarimteric parameters and decomposition techniques for identification and discrimination of agricultural crops and other associated land cover classes present within an agricultural region. In the context of Indian region, SAR polarimetry is being evolved recently due to availability of SAR data and software for handling such data sets. The current study mainly is an effort towards assessment on the potential use of multi-temporal and multi-polarimetric SAR data for an agricultural environment. The major focus is towards enhancing the Indian ability of crop production forecasting project which uses multi-temporal SAR data. Also the focus is towards Kharif crop monitoring project, due to the penetration ability of microwaves through cloud cover. Evaluation relates to multi-temporal and multi-polarimetric C-band SAR data investigation for an agricultural area and its surroundings. Thus, the research questions have been framed to address on the improved ability of the ongoing Indian efforts in this direction. This requires the study on evaluation of temporal backscatter data, temporal changes in polarimetric parameters (of dominant Kharif crops, Season-June to October,) and decomposition techniques for monitoring agricultural area including associated land cover classes. For this purpose, fully polarimetric C-band Radarsat-2 data was acquired for a part of Hisar district.