CROP CLASSIFICATION POSSIBILITIES WITH RADAR IN ERS-1 AND JERS-1 CONFIGURATION

Classification possibilities of agricultural crops were studied using multitemporal, airborne radar data in ERS-1 and JERS-1 SAR configuration. The radar data were collected with the DUTSCAT scatterometer during the Agriscatt campaign over an agricultural test site in The Netherlands in 1988. In both ERS-1 and JERS-1 configuration, winter wheat, potato, sugar beet, and grass were differentiated in combinations of early-middle and early-late season observations. The distance between the centers of the clusters of these crops (in the early-middle and the early-late season combinations) varied between 1.6 dB and 9.3 dB in the ERS-1 and between 3.1 dB and 9.7 dB in the JERS-1 configuration. The average standard deviation of the crop-type clusters was 0.7 dB in the ERS-1 and 1.2 dB in the JERS-1 configuration. In the ERS-1 configuration, pea, stem bean, and onion were likely to be confused with sugar beet and grass, but more fields were needed to derive firm conclusions. In the JERS-1 configuration, stem bean and onion were well discriminated, and rapeseed and pea were confused with winter wheat and beet. The combination of data in the ERS-1 and the JERS-1 configuration increased the classification possibilities for all crops.