Agricultural crop monitoring using airborne multi-spectral imagery and C-band synthetic aperture radar

Airborne optical multi-spectral and C-band HH-polarized Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery were acquired in conjunction with contemporaneous ground-based measurements of various crop conditions (Leaf Area Index, canopy temperature, plant height) at a test site in southern Alberta, Canada on July 19-70, 1994. Data were acquired for a variety of crops (wheat, canola, peas and beans) and irrigation practices. A number of crop condition-imagery relationships were examined to determine whether the imagery could be used to measure the various crop condition parameters. A number of statistically significant correlations were found between the imagery and the crop condition parameters, and these correlations vary as a function of crop type, sensor and crop condition parameter. The results suggest that airborne remote sensing is well suited for measuring variations in crop conditions and that C-band SAR and multi-spectral imagery provide complementary information.