Project for development of application using satellite image to measure paddy rice planted area in Japan — case of ALOS/PALSAR

The agricultural statistical section of Japanese government starts the project for development of application using satellite image to measure paddy rice planted area in Japan from 2009. While clouds block optical sensor observations, measurement method using SAR should be developed. The project carried out selected 8 cities in 2009. This paper reports results of ALOS/PALSAR data. The average accuracy of detection of paddy rice planted fields was about 70%. It is considered that spatial resolution of ALOS/PALSAR is not enough Japanese paddy fields. Therefore we expect ALOS-2 sensor.