Abstract
In this study the impact of sucrose accumulation in Sentinel-1 backscatter observations is presented and compared to Planet optical observations. Sugarcane yield data from a sugarcane plantation in Xinavane, Mozambique are used for this study. The database contains sugarcane yield of 387 fields over two seasons (2018-2019 and 2019-2020). The relation between sugarcane yield and Sentinel-1 VV and VH backscatter observation is analyzed by using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) data as derived from Planet Scope optical imagery as a benchmark. The different satellite observations were compared over time to sugarcane yield to understand how the relation between the observations and yield evolves during the growing season. A negative correlation between yield and Cross Ratio (CR) from Sentinel-1 backscatter was found while a positive correlation between yield and Planet NDVI was observed. An additional modeling study on the dielectric properties of the crop revealed how the CR could be affected by sucrose accumulation during the growing season and supported the opposite correlations. The results shows CR contains information on sucrose content in the sugarcane plant. This sets a basis for further development of sucrose monitoring and prediction using a combination of radar and optical imagery.
Highlights
Sugarcane is an important source for both sugar and ethanol production, where the quantity and quality of soluble sugar in the plant, named sucrose, determines the final sugar yield
This study shows the relationship between sugarcane yield and vegetation indices from Sentinel-1 backscatter and Planet Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI)
The results show a negative correlation between the Cross Ratio (CR) and sugarcane yield over the growing season
Summary
Sugarcane is an important source for both sugar and ethanol production, where the quantity and quality of soluble sugar in the plant, named sucrose, determines the final sugar yield. Monitoring sugarcane and its sucrose content during the growing season can provide essential information to several users, such as individual producers, sugarcane mills, or commodity traders (Abdel-Rahman and Ahmed, 2008). This is because monitoring and yield forecasting helps to evaluate production processes, adjust on-site management, and estimates the potential industrial production (Bocca et al, 2015). Limited studies have assessed the capability of SAR data to monitor sugarcane biomass or estimate sugarcane yield. The modeling study will provide explanation on the behavior of Sentinel-1 backscatter and supports the potential to monitor potential sucrose yield with satellite data
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