Application of ENVISAT ASAR Data to Rice Monitoring in Jiangsu Province, China

Radar remote sensing technology has become an important method for stable and long-time rice monitoring for its capability to operate in all weather conditions. In this paper, the obtained main achievements on rice monitoring using ENVISAT ASAR data were reviewed and major results were summarized. The results showed that the multi-temporal and multi-polarization radar data has advantages in rice monitoring, especially in rice mapping and rice parameters estimation. A practical scheme for rice yield estimation was also summarized, showing prospect for radar data in rice production prediction. However, further studies are expected to develop a theoretical model for explaining the mechanism of radar interaction between rice plants and radar waves.