High Angular Resolution Measurements of the Monostatic Backscattering Coefficient of Rice Fields

Abstract

This paper investigates the C-Band backscattering coefficient measurements of rice fields with a high angular resolution of 1°. The study is based on a ground-based scatterometer experiment conducted on rice fields at the Sungai Burung site in Malaysia from March 13 to May 27 in the year 2008. The objective of this paper is to present the multi-polarimetric measurement results of the monostatic backscattering coefficient at high angular resolution using a ground-based C-Band scatterometer as obtained at different stages of growth throughout the rice crop season. This information is expected to be important for rice crop monitoring research communities for reference and verification purposes, particularly in the area of remote sensing of rice crops. The results of the scatterometer measurements are presented together with simulation results obtained using the Radiative Transfer Dense Medium Model for rice crops, which provides a good match.