Radar Backscattering Measurement of a Paddy Rice Field using Multi-frequency(L, C and X) and Full-polarization

The objective of this study is to measure backscattering coefficients of paddy rice using L, C, X-bands scatterometer system with full polarization and various angles during a rice growth variables. The measurement was conducted at an experimental field located in National Institute of Agricultural Science and Technology (NIAST), Suwon, Korea. The rice cultivar was Japonica type, called Chuchung. The scatterometer system consists of dual-polarimetric square horn antennas, HP8720D vector netword analyzer (20 MHz ~ 20 GHz), RF cables, and a personal computer that controls frequency, polarization and data storage. The backscattering coefficients were calculated by applying a radar equation for the measured at incidence angles between 20deg and 60deg for full polarization (HH, VV, HV, VH), respectively, and compared with rice growth data such as plant height, stem number, fresh and dry weight and LAI that were collected at time of each scatterometer measurement simultaneously.