Temporal and spatial characteristics of irrigated rice in JERS-1 L-band SAR data

Multi-temporal JERS-1 SAR (Japanese Earth Resource Satellite 1 Synthetic Ap erture Radar) data have been used in this study to investigate the temporal and spatial characteristics of irrigated rice in L-HH-band SAR data. The t wo test sites chosen represent areas that are characterized by manual and m echanical planting-practices that turn out to have a significant effect on the L-band backscatter. The results show a dear relationship between L-band backscatter and plant growth in manually planted areas. A dynamic range of about 8 dB has been measured with no apparent saturation of the signal. Ar eas in which mechanical planting is practiced, however, display a more comp lex relationship where the radar response is strongly dependent on paramete rs related to the spatial distribution of the plants. The backscatter displ ays a strong dependency on planting orientation and plant spacing, where fi elds planted in the radar illumination direction with a certain plant spaci ng display extreme dynamic ranges of up to more than 20 dB due to resonant scattering. Fields planted in other directions generally experience attenua tion of the signal and dynamic ranges do not change by more than a few deci bels. Despite these artifacts, however, a correlation between plant growth and backscatter has been observed for all fields, independent of plant spac ing and held orientation.