Microwave and optical remote sensing study of Boone County, Missouri

Integration of synthetic-aperture radar data with spaceborne optical data offers potential for improving land-use classification for local and state government applications. Remote sensing techniques using optical sensor data are well established for local and state government applications. As commercial SAR products become available at lower costs, local government applications using optical based classification can incorporate SAR sensor data into their processing. For this study, we orthorectified and analyzed Radarsat SAR data and Landsat TM data that covers Boone County, Missouri. Optical and SAR sensor data are co-registered for data fusion and classification process. Training data from sites throughout the study area are used to verify and validate the classification of five classes: crops, water, built-up, forest and grass. We present preliminary results of our study.