COSMO-SkyMed® for crops monitoring

The COSMO-SkyMed^® X-band SAR satellites constellation, due to its capability to acquire dense temporal data series at very high to high ground resolution and in co and cross-polarizations, is a promising system for crops monitoring and management. Its use, in combination with other SAR and optical systems in a virtual constellation, can result in a very effective tool for agricultural practice monitoring, management and control. This work intends to show a preliminary analysis of a dataset of COSMO-SkyMed^® products acquired at HH, VV and VH polarizations over the Marchfeld agricultural area in Austria. The analysis has been carried out at a regional scale by taking into consideration the temporal behavior of two different clusters of vegetation macro-classes distinct for their different Normalized Differential Vegetation Index (NDVI) temporal signatures. Preliminary results show a significant correlation of the NDVI values with the COSMO-SkyMed^® HH backscattering coefficients for both the clusters of classes as well as a significant one with VV backscattering coefficients for NDVI values lower than 0.7.