Comparison of Multifrequency Band Radars for Crop Classification

A first, systematic experiment with airborne SAR systems working in X-, C-, and L-band took place during the European Convair SAR 580 experiment in 1981. One major topic of the use of SAR images is to analyse their potential for agricultural applications including crop identification. This paper describes results from the analysis of images taken over two German test sites. These data prove that differences of the backscattering behavior of crops are mainly related to the dielectric geometry of the plants. The paper will give examples. Furthermore, the data analysis undertaken on the base of SAR 580 data will be described.