Title :
Polarization Impact in TanDEM-X Data Over Vertical-Oriented Vegetation: The Paddy-Rice Case Study
Author :
Erten, Esra ; Rossi, Cristian ; Yuzugullu, Onur
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Geomatics Eng., Istanbul Tech. Univ., Istanbul, Turkey
Abstract :
It has been recently shown that the TanDEM-X mission is capable of tracking the plant growth of rice paddies. The precision of the elevation measure depends on the physical interaction between the synthetic aperture radar (SAR) signal and the canopy. In this letter, this interaction is studied by considering the signal polarization. In particular, the vertical and horizontal wave polarizations are compared, and their performance in the temporal mapping of the crop height is analyzed. The temporal elevation difference analysis shows a monotonically increasing trend within the reproductive stage of the canopy, with maximum height discrepancies between polarizations of about 9 cm. From an operational point of view of InSAR-based vegetation height measurements, this letter demonstrates that the oriented structure of the canopy shall be considered not only in polarimetric InSAR studies but also in the interpretation of bistatic spaceborne interferometric elevation models.
Keywords :
radar interferometry; radar polarimetry; remote sensing by radar; spaceborne radar; synthetic aperture radar; vegetation mapping; TanDEM-X data; TanDEM-X mission; bistatic spaceborne interferometric elevation models; horizontal wave polarizations; paddy-rice case study; physical interaction; polarimetric InSAR-based vegetation height measurements; polarization impact; reproductive stage; signal polarization; synthetic aperture radar signal; temporal crop height mapping; temporal elevation difference analysis; vertical wave polarizations; vertical-oriented vegetation; Agriculture; Backscatter; Coherence; Entropy; Monitoring; Remote sensing; Synthetic aperture radar; Agriculture; TanDEM-X; X-Band; copolar phase difference (CPD); polarimetry; synthetic aperture radar (SAR);
Journal_Title :
Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters, IEEE
DOI :
10.1109/LGRS.2015.2410339