Monitoring rice-crop growth with ENVISAT-1/ASAR alternating polarization mode

Abstract

The Hiroshima Institute of Technology (HIT) manages direct downlinks for microwave and optical earth observation satellite data in Japan. This study focuses on validating rice monitoring using ground truth data from ENIVISAT-1/ASAR, such as the height of rice crop, vegetation cover, and leaf area index in test sites in the Hiroshima district in Japan. ENVISAT-1/ASAR data can monitor the rice-crop growing cycle using alternating polarization (AP) mode images. However, ASAR data is influenced by several parameters, such as land-cover structure, and the direction and alignment of rice fields in the test sites. To investigate these parameters, in this study the validation was combined with microwave image data and ground truth data for rice-crop fields. Multitemporal, multidirection (descending and ascending), and multiangle ASAR AP-mode images were used to investigate the rice-crop growing cycle. Finally, the extraction of rice-planted areas was attempted using multitemporal ASAR AP mode data, such as VV/VH and HH/HV. This study clarifies that the estimated rice-planted area agrees with the existing statistical data for areas within the rice field. In addition, HH/HV is more effective than VV/VH in extracting the rice-planted area.