Polarimetric analysis of radar backscatter from ground-based scatterometers and wheat biomass monitoring with advanced synthetic aperture radar images

This article presents an analysis of the scattering measurements for an entire wheat growth cycle by ground-based scatterometers at a frequency of 5.3 GHz. Since wheat ears are related to wheat growth and yield, the radar backscatter of wheat was analyzed at two different periods, i.e., with and without wheat ears. Simultaneously, parameters such as wheat and soil characteristics as well as volume scattering and soil scattering were analyzed for the two periods during the entire growth cycle. Wheat ears have been demonstrated to have a great influence on radar backscatter; therefore, a modified version of water-cloud model used for retrieving biomass should consider the effect of wheat ears. This work presents two retrieval models based on the water-cloud model and adopts the advanced integral equation model to simulate the soil backscatter before the heading stage and the backscatter from the layer under wheat ears after the heading stage. The research results showed that the biomass retrieved from the advanced synthetic aperture radar (ASAR) images to agree well with the data measured in situ after setting the modified water-cloud model for the growth stages with ears. Furthermore, it was concluded that wheat ears should form an essential component of theoretical modeling as they influence the final yield. © The Authors. Published by SPIE under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Distribution or reproduction of this work in whole or in part requires full attribution of the original publication, including its DOI. [DOI: 10.1117/1.JRS.10.026008]