Mac 91 on Montespertolk an Experiment for Agro-Hydrology

Remote sensing techniques can be a very useful method for monitoring hydrological parameters in large watersheds at a relatively low cost. However the operational capability of remote sensing is not yet fully exploited and much research is in progress especially on the use of new sensors and on the algorithms for the extraction of geophysical parameters. A research activity, which aims at a better understanding of the information that can be obtained from multifrequency polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar to be used in hydrology, has been started in the framework of SIR-C/X-SAR Project. The site of Montespertoli (Italy) was imaged three times during the Multisensor Airborne Campaign (MAC 91), carried out in summer 1991 on several sites in Europe, based on NASA/JPL AIRSAR. This paper presents an overview of the experiments which have been carried out during the campaign and a preliminary analysis of the obtained results