SAR POLARIMETRIC FEATURES OF AGRICULTURAL AREAS

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 (AIRSAR). The site of Montespertoli (Italy) was imaged three times during this campaign at P-, L-, and C-band and at differen t incidence angles between 20 degrees and 50 degrees. Calibrated full polarimetric data collected over the agricultural area of this site ha ve been analysed and a critical analysis of the information contained in linear and circular co-polar and cross-polar data has also been car ried 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 landsc ape, 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 sep arated from the others, whereas at C-band discrimination seems feasibl e in the case of moderate growth as well. Finally the sensitivity of b ackscattering coefficient to soil moiture and vegetation biomass is di scussed.