A statistical and theoretical study about radar sensitivity to crop growth from S to X band

In this work, we show the correlation study carried out on the data collected on a maize field in the Swiss region named Central Plain, by the multifrequency RASAM scatterometer. This agricultural field was monitored over long periods, at a wide range of frequencies and observation angles, so that the correlation between backscattering and crop height, biomass and soil moisture could have been studied under several plant and observation conditions. Moreover, we describe some recent refinements applied to the vegetation scattering model developed at Tor Vergata University, and we evaluate the accuracy of extended comparisons between model outputs and RASAM signatures. The Tor Vergata model is finally applied to give a theoretical basis to the experimental correlation findings.