On scattering characteristics of winter wheat at different phenological period based on Sentinel-1A SAR images

Abstract

Phenophase period refers to the periodic natural phenomena of plants under the influence of environmental factors and human activities. In recent years, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) has been used to growth monitoring of crops. Due to complex morphological changes at different growth stage of crops, single-phase SAR data unable provide sufficient information to analyze scattering characteristics at different phenological period. In this paper, the scattering characteristics of winter wheat are studied, using time series dual-polarization Sentinel-1A SAR images. And winter wheat planting region in Kaifeng city Henan Province is selected as the study area. Time series C-band radar backscatter coefficient is extracted, then analyze correlation between numerical evolution and phenological change with different polarization data. The variation trend is verified by field measured data. The results show that dual-polarization SAR image is great practical significance for winter wheat phenological monitoring.