Synergetic use of optical and microwave remote sensing data using models and specific features with respect to the sugar beet crop

Analyses radar backscatter and optical reflectance from sugar beet crops and examine the relations with the growth and development stages of sugar beet. The authors final goal is then to answer the question whether radar can monitor sugar beet growth throughout the whole growing season and whether radar measurements can contribute to synergism with optical data in predicting sugar beet yield. The information from radar remote sensing is used in a twofold manner. Firstly, biomass is estimated by inversion of the Cloud model and, secondly, the use of structure changes of the sugar beet crop on the backscatter are discussed. The Flevopolder dataset of Mac Europe 1991 is used.