Observation of Japanese paddy fields using PALSAR data

Backscatter coefficients (σ°) of PALSAR increase about 3 to 4 dB the cultivation period of paddy rice, and correlation was seen in the height of paddy rice and σ°. However it is difficult to specific planted paddy rice and to estimate the amount of rice growth because the difference of σ° at each fields were large. Unsupervised classification (K-means method) was carried out using Dbl and Odd components from Freeman and Durden three components decomposition analysis. As a result accuracy of detect rice planted paddy fields was 58.8%. Full-polarimetric data confer useful information and chance of advanced analysis. Thus there is possibility of determination for rice planted paddy fields when use full-polarimetric PALSAR data. However it is difficult to determinate at each paddy fields parcels because resolution is not enough for Japanese typical paddy fields.