C- and L-band multi-temporal polarimetric signatures of crops

Abstract

Polarimetric SAR-data of agricultural fields have been acquired by the Danish polarimetric SAR (EMISAR) during a number of missions at the Danish test site Foulum during 1994 and 1995. EMISAR has operated in a fully polarimetric mode at C-band since the fall of 1993 and at L-band since the beginning of 1995. The SAR system is installed on a Danish Air Force Gulfstream aircraft, and a significant amount of polarimetric SAR data have been acquired on various missions. Polarimetric parameters for a number of different agricultural crops are shown, and the advantage of having polarimetric, multi-frequency, and multi-temporal data for crop discrimination is clearly seen.