Mapping rice-fallow cropland areas for short-season grain legumes intensification in South Asia using MODIS 250 m time-series data

The goal of this study was to map rainfed and irrigated rice-fallow cropland areas across South Asia, using MODIS 250?m time-series data and identify where the farming system may be intensified by the inclusion of a short-season crop during the fallow period. Rice-fallow cropland areas are those areas where rice is grown during the kharif growing season (June–October), followed by a fallow during the rabi season (November–February). These cropland areas are not suitable for growing rabi-season rice due to their high water needs, but are suitable for a short -season (≤3 months), low water-consuming grain legumes such as chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.), black gram, green gram, and lentils. Intensification (double-cropping) in this manner can improve smallholder farmer’s incomes and soil health via rich nitrogen-fixation legume crops as well as address food security challenges of ballooning populations without having to expand croplands. Several grain legumes, primarily chickpea, are increasingly grown across Asia as a source of income for smallholder farmers and at the same time providing rich and cheap source of protein that can improve the nutritional quality of diets in the region. The suitability of rainfed and irrigated rice-fallow croplands for grain legume cultivation across South Asia were defined by these identifiers: (a) rice crop is grown during the primary (kharif) crop growing season or during the north-west monsoon season (June–October); (b) same croplands are left fallow during the second (rabi) season or during the south-east monsoon season (November–February); and (c) ability to support low water-consuming, short-growing season (≤3 months) grain legumes (chickpea, black gram, green gram, and lentils) during rabi season. Existing irrigated or rainfed crops such as rice or wheat that were grown during kharif were not considered suitable for growing during the rabi season, because the moisture/water demand of these crops is too high. The study established cropland classes based on the every 16-day 250?m normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) time series for one year (June 2010–May 2011) of Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data, using spectral matching techniques (SMTs), and extensive field knowledge. Map accuracy was evaluated based on independent ground survey data as well as compared with available sub-national level statistics. The producers’ and users’ accuracies of the cropland fallow classes were between 75% and 82%. The overall accuracy and the kappa coefficient estimated for rice classes were 82% and 0.79, respectively. The analysis estimated approximately 22.3?Mha of suitable rice-fallow areas in South Asia, with 88.3% in India, 0.5% in Pakistan, 1.1% in Sri Lanka, 8.7% in Bangladesh, 1.4% in Nepal, and 0.02% in Bhutan. Decision-makers can target these areas for sustainable intensification of short-duration grain legumes.     

Full year crop monitoring and separability assessment with fully-polarimetric L-band UAVSAR: A case study in the Sacramento Valley,California

Spatial and temporal information on plant and soil conditions is needed urgently for monitoring of crop productivity. Remote sensing has been considered as an effective means for crop growth monitoring due to its timely updating and complete coverage. In this paper, we explored the potential of L-band fully-polarimetric Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) data for crop monitoring and classification. The study site was located in the Sacramento Valley, in California where the cropping system is relatively diverse. Full season polarimetric signatures, as well as scattering mechanisms, for several crops, including almond, walnut, alfalfa, winter wheat, corn, sunflower, and tomato, were analyzed with linear polarizations (HH, HV, and VV) and polarimetric decomposition (Cloude–Pottier and Freeman–Durden) parameters, respectively. The separability amongst crop types was assessed across a full calendar year based on both linear polarizations and decomposition parameters. The unique structure-related polarimetric signature of each crop was provided by multitemporal UAVSAR data with a fine temporal resolution. Permanent tree crops (almond and walnut) and alfalfa demonstrated stable radar backscattering values across the growing season, whereas winter wheat and summer crops (corn, sunflower, and tomato) presented drastically different patterns, with rapid increase from the emergence stage to the peak biomass stage, followed by a significant decrease during the senescence stage. In general, the polarimetric signature was heterogeneous during June and October, while homogeneous during March-to-May and July-to-August. The scattering mechanisms depend heavily upon crop type and phenological stage. The primary scattering mechanism for tree crops was volume scattering (>40%), while surface scattering (>40%) dominated for alfalfa and winter wheat, although double-bounce scattering (>30%) was notable for alfalfa during March-to-September. Surface scattering was also dominant (>40%) for summer crops across the growing season except for sunflower and tomato during June and corn during July-to-October when volume scattering (>40%) was the primary scattering mechanism. Crops were better discriminated with decomposition parameters than with linear polarizations, and the greatest separability occurred during the peak biomass stage (July-August). All crop types were completely separable from the others when simultaneously using UAVSAR data spanning the whole growing season. The results demonstrate the feasibility of L-band SAR for crop monitoring and classification, without the need for optical data, and should serve as a guideline for future research.     

National Inventory of Rabi Pulses in India Using Remotely Sensed Data

A scheme called National Food Security Mission was launched by Government of India in 2007 for wheat, rice and pulses crops. At the request of Ministry of Agriculture for monitoring intensification of pulses a project called Pulses Intensification was taken up in Rabi season 2012–2013. Reliable statistics using advanced methods is very important for variety of pulse crops. Remotely sensed data can help in pre-harvest area estimation of pulse crops. Pulses in India are grown as partly scattered and partly contiguous crop. Growth in scattered areas and poor vegetation canopy of some of the pulse crops poses a challenge in its identification and discrimination using remotely sensed data. National Inventory of Rabi pulse crops in major growing regions of northern and southern parts of India was attempted. Multi-date AWiFS data and multi-date NDVI products of AWiFS of Rabi season 2014–2015 were used to study spectral-temporal behavior of pulse crops. Pulse crops accuracies of more than 95 % was observed in contiguous areas and 50–80.77 % in scattered regions. All India area estimate of Rabi pulses for the year 2014–2015 was 8963.327 ‘000 ha.     

Determination of the crop row orientations from Formosat-2 multi-temporal and panchromatic images

This paper presents a technique developed for the retrieval of the orientation of crop rows, over anthropic lands dedicated to agriculture in order to further improve estimate of crop production and soil erosion management. Five crop types are considered: wheat, barley, rapeseed, sunflower, corn and hemp. The study is part of the multi-sensor crop-monitoring experiment, conducted in 2010 throughout the agricultural season (MCM’10) over an area located in southwestern France, near Toulouse. The proposed methodology is based on the use of satellite images acquired by Formosat-2, at high spatial resolution in panchromatic and multispectral modes (with spatial resolution of 2 and 8 m, respectively). Orientations are derived and evaluated for each image and for each plot, using directional spatial filters (45° and 135°) and mathematical morphology algorithms. “Single-date” and “multi-temporal” approaches are considered. The single-date analyses confirm the good performances of the proposed method, but emphasize the limitation of the approach for estimating the crop row orientation over the whole landscape with only one date. The multi-date analyses allow (1) determining the most suitable agricultural period for the detection of the row orientations, and (2) extending the estimation to the entire footprint of the study area. For the winter crops (wheat, barley and rapeseed), best results are obtained with images acquired just after harvest, when surfaces are covered by stubbles or during the period of deep tillage (0.27 > R² > 0.99 and 7.15° > RMSE > 43.02°). For the summer crops (sunflower, corn and hemp), results are strongly crop and date dependents (0 > R² > 0.96, 10.22° > RMSE > 80°), with a well-marked impact of flowering, irrigation equipment and/or maximum crop development. Last, the extent of the method to the whole studied zone allows mapping 90% of the crop row orientations (more than 45,000 ha) with an error inferior to 40°, associated to a confidence index ranging from 1 to 5 for each agricultural plot.     

Estimation of Wheat/Rice Residue Burning Areas in Major Districts of Haryana,India, Using Remote Sensing Data

Haryana has emerged as an important state for Rice & Wheat production in India contributing significantly in the central pool. Mechanized combine harvesting technologies, which have become common in Rice Wheat System (RWS) in India, leave behind large quantities of straw in the field for open burning of residue. Besides causing pollution, the burning kills the useful micro flora of the soil causing soil degradation. There is no field survey (Girdawari) data available with the Government for the areas where stubble burning is taking place. The present paper describes the methodology and results of wheat and rice residue burning areas for three districts of Haryana namely Kaithal, Kurukshetra and Karnal for the year 2010 using complete enumeration approach of multi-date IRS-P6 AWiFS and LISS-III data. In season ground truth was collected using hand held GPS and used to identify area of burnt wheat/rice residues, associated crops and land features. After geo-referencing the satellite images, district images were masked-out and multi-date image data stacks were created. Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) of each date was generated and used at the time of classification along with other spectral bands. The non-agricultural classes in the image included: forest, wasteland, water bodies, urban/settlement and permanent vegetation etc. The vector of these non-agriculture classes were extracted from the land use, imported and mask was generated. During the classification non-agriculture area was excluded by using mask of these classes. From this the agricultural area could be separated out. The area was estimated by computing pixels under the classified image mask. In season multi-date AWiFS data along with available single-date LISS-III data between third week of April to last week of May are found to be useful for estimation of wheat residue burning areas estimation. The data between second week of October to last week of November is useful for estimation of rice residue burning areas estimation at district level.     

Evaluating the relationship between biomass,percent groundcover and remote sensing indices across six winter cover crop fields in Maryland,United States

Winter cover crops are an essential part of managing nutrient and sediment losses from agricultural lands. Cover crops lessen sedimentation by reducing erosion, and the accumulation of nitrogen in aboveground biomass results in reduced nutrient runoff. Winter cover crops are planted in the fall and are usually terminated in early spring, making them susceptible to senescence, frost burn, and leaf yellowing due to wintertime conditions. This study sought to determine to what extent remote sensing indices are capable of accurately estimating the percent groundcover and biomass of winter cover crops, and to analyze under what critical ranges these relationships are strong and under which conditions they break down. Cover crop growth on six fields planted to barley, rye, ryegrass, triticale or wheat was measured over the 2012–2013 winter growing season. Data collection included spectral reflectance measurements, aboveground biomass, and percent groundcover. Ten vegetation indices were evaluated using surface reflectance data from a 16-band CROPSCAN sensor. Restricting analysis to sampling dates before the onset of prolonged freezing temperatures and leaf yellowing resulted in increased estimation accuracy. There was a strong relationship between the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and percent groundcover (r² = 0.93) suggesting that date restrictions effectively eliminate yellowing vegetation from analysis. The triangular vegetation index (TVI) was most accurate in estimating high ranges of biomass (r² = 0.86), while NDVI did not experience a clustering of values in the low and medium biomass ranges but saturated in the higher range (>1500 kg/ha). The results of this study show that accounting for index saturation, senescence, and frost burn on leaves can greatly increase the accuracy of estimates of percent groundcover and biomass for winter cover crops.     

Evaluation of potential crop productivity based on remote sensing and agro-ecological zones around the world

Human diets strongly rely on wheat, maize, rice and soybean; research on the potential crop productivity of these four main crops could provide the basis for increasing global crop yields. The evaluation model of realistic potential crop productivity based on remote sensing and agro-ecological zones was proposed in this study to provide reliable reference data for world food security. The statistical data on these four main crops yields were obtained from the FAO. The model was used to investigate the potential production of four staple crops in the world. The distributions of the realistic potential productivity of four staple crops (winter wheat, maize, rice and soybean) were produced. In the main producing countries of the four staple crops, statistical analysis was conducted on the realistic potential productivity (RPP) of the four staple crops, the highest productivity (HP) during the period 1983–2011 and the gap between RPP and HP.     

Wheat crop production estimation using satellite data

This paper reports acreage, yield and production forecasting of wheat crop using remote sensing and agrometeorological data for the 1998–99 rabi season. Wheat crop identification and discrimination using Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) ID LISS III satellite data was carried out by supervised maximum likelihood classification. Three types of wheat crop viz. wheat-1 (high vigour-normal sown), wheat-2 (moderate vigour-late sown) and wheat-3 (low vigour-very late sown) have been identified and discriminated from each other. Before final classification of satellite data spectral separability between classes were evaluated. For yield prediction of wheat crop spectral vegetation indices (RVI and NDVI), agrometeorological parameters (ET_max and TD) and historical crop yield (actual yield) trend analysis based linear and multiple linear regression models were developed. The estimated wheat crop area was 75928.0 ha. for the year 1998–99, which sowed ?2.59% underestimation with land record commissioners estimates. The yield prediction through vegetation index based and vegetation index with agrometeorological indices based models were 1753 kg/ha and 1754 kg/ha, respectively and have shown relative deviation of 0.17% and 0.22%, the production estimates from above models when compared with observed production show relative deviation of ?2.4% and ?2.3% underestimations, respectively.     

Identification of Aman Rice Crop in Bangladesh Using Temporal C-Band SAR – A Feasibility Study

In-season rice area estimation using C-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data from RADARSAT-1 is being done in India for more than a decade. Decision rule based models in backscatter domain have been calibrated and validated using extensive field data and a long term backscatter signature bank of rice fields has been developed. Since the rice crop growing environment in India is a diverse one in the world having all the rice cultural types, the rice backscatter is quite exhaustive. This paper highlights the results of classification of rice lands in Bangladesh using the signature bank of India. The results showed that the Aman rice crop of Bangladesh has a typical temporal backscatter of shallow and intermediate rice fields of that of West Bengal state. The mean backscatter of the intermediate/deep water fields in southern Bangladesh was ?19?dB, while that of shallow cultural types mostly in northern Bangladesh was ?17?dB. The signature of the rice crop in Southern Bangladesh matched well with that of Gangetic West Bengal, particularly that of the 24 Parganas, Howrah and Hughli districts. The signature of rice crop in the Sub-Himalayan West Bengal particularly that of Dinajpur and Maldah districts matched well with that of the northern area of Bangladesh. State level rice area estimated using the selected models was found with in 5% deviation from that of the reported acreage.     

Comprehensive evaluation of soil moisture retrieval models under different crop cover types using C-band synthetic aperture radar data

In the present study, random forest regression (RFR), support vector regression (SVR) and artificial neural network regression (ANNR) models were evaluated for the retrieval of soil moisture covered by winter wheat, barley and corn crops. SVR with radial basis function kernel was provided the highest adj. R² (0.95) value for soil moisture retrieval covered by the wheat crop at VV polarization. However, RFR provided the adj. R² (0.94) value for soil moisture retrieval covered by barley crop at VV polarization using Sentinel-1A satellite data. The adj. R² (0.94) values were found for the soil moisture covered by corn crop at VV polarization using RFR, SVR linear and radial basis function kernels. The least performance was reported using ANNR model for almost all the crops under investigation. The soil moisture retrieval outcomes were found better at VV polarization in comparison to VH polarization using three different models.     

农作物单产预测的运行化方法

提出了适于运行化农作物单产预测的方法。即以农作物单产区划为基础 ,通过搜集不同地区不同作物的单产预测模型 ,分析每个模型的空间适用范围 ,并从模型参数等角度筛选模型 ,然后利用这些模型进行气象站点的作物单产预测 ,并以NDVI分布图为参考数据将点上的单产数据空间外推到区域尺度。借助耕地分布估计区域水平的农作物单产。最后以 2 0 0 3年冬小麦为例 ,进行了全国 10个省的冬小麦平均单产估算 ,花费了较少的人力和时间 ,符合运行化遥感估产要求     

A simple assessment approach for winter wheat loss risk impacted by water stress

In this study, an empirical assessment approach for the risk of crop loss due to water stress was developed and used to evaluate the risk of winter wheat loss in China, the United States, Germany, France and the United Kingdom. We combined statistical and remote sensing data on crop yields with climate data and cropland distribution to model the effect of water stress from 1982 to 2011. The average value of winter wheat loss due to water stress for the three European countries was about ?931 kg/ha, which was higher than that in China (?570 kg/ha) and the United States (?367 kg/ha). Our study has important implications for the operational assessment of crop loss risk at a country or regional scale. Future studies should focus on using higher spatial resolution remote sensing data, combining actual evapotranspiration to estimate water stress, improving the method for downscaling of statistical crop yield data and establishing more sophisticated zoning methods.     

Identification and mapping of winter wheat by integrating temporal change information and Kullback–Leibler divergence

Crop acreage and its spatial distribution are a base for agriculture related works. Current research combining medium and low spatial resolution images focuses on data fusion and unmixing methods. The purpose of the former is to generate synthetic fine spatial resolution data instead of directly solving the problem. In the latter, high-resolution data is only used to provide endmembers and the result is usually an abundance map rather than the true spatial distribution data. To solve this problem, this paper designs a conceptual model which divides the study area into different types of pixels at a MODIS 250 m scale. Only three types of pixels contain winter wheat, i.e., pure winter wheat pixels (P_A), the mixed pixels comprising winter wheat and other vegetation (M_A) and the mixed pixels comprising winter wheat and other crops (M_B). Different strategies are used in processing them. (1) Within the pure cultivated land pixels, the Kullback–Leibler (KL) divergence is employed to analyze the similarity between unknown pixels and the pure winter wheat samples on the temporal change characteristics of NDVI. Further P_A is identified. (2) For M_A, a proposed reverse unmixing method is firstly used to extract the temporal change information of cultivated land components, after which winter wheat is identified from the cultivated land components as previously described. (3) For M_B which only appears on the border of P_A, a mask is created by expanding the P_A and temporal difference is utilized to identify winter wheat under the mask. Finally, these three results are integrated at a TM scale with the aid of 25 m resolution land use data. We applied the proposed solution and obtained a good result in the main agricultural area of the Yiluo River Basin. The identified winter wheat planting acreage is 161,050.00 hm². The result is validated based on the five-hundred random validation points. Overall accuracy is 94.80% and Kappa coefficient is 0.85. This demonstrates that the temporal information reflecting crop growth is also an important indicator, and the KL divergence makes it more convenient in identifying winter wheat. This research provided a new perspective for the combination of low and medium spatial resolution remote sensing images. The proposed solution can also be effectively applied in other places and countries for the crop which has a clear temporal change characteristic that is different from others.     

Azimuth determination by equatorial stars

Summary Difficulties in the determination of precise azimuth from observations on Polaris at high latitudes suggested an investigation of azimuth determination from other stars. A proposed method for determining azimuth by observing the time of crossing of stars in the vertical plane through the reference object is discussed theoretically, and results of a field test of the method are given.

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Zusammenfassung Genaue Azimutbestimmungen mit Hilfe des Polarsterns sind in h?heren Breiten schwierig. Der Verfasser untersucht daher die Azimutbestimmung mit Hilfe anderer Sterne. Der Aufsatz er?rtert die Theorie eines Messverfahrens, bei dem die Durchgangszeiten von Sternen durch die Referenz-Lotebene beobachtet werden. Ergebnisse von Versuchsmessungen werden mitgeteilt.

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Resumen La dificultad de efectuar determinaciones precisas de azimut con la estrella polar, han conducido al autor a estudiar esta determinación con otras estrellas. El artículo discute la teoría de un método de determinación por observación del instante de pasos de estrellas por el plano vertical de la referencia y presenta resultados experimentales.

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Résumé La difficulté des déterminations précises d'azimuth sur l'étoile polaire, aux hautes latitudes, ont amené l'auteur à étudier cette détermination sur d'autres étoiles. L'article discute la théorie d'une méthode de détermination par observation de l'instant de passage des étoiles dans le plan vertical de la référence et présente des résultats expérimentaux.

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Riassunto La difficoltà di effettuare determinazioni precise d'azimut con la Polare, ad alte latitudini, ha indotto l'Autore a studiare tale determinazione con altre stelle. L'articolo tratta la teoria di un metodo di determinazione con osservazione dell'istante di passaggio delle stelle nel piano verticale di riferimento e presenta alcuni risultati sperimentali.

     

全国作物种植结构快速调查技术与应用

现有种植结构的分析都是基于统计数据 ,时效性低及精度差 ,难以及时为各级政府部门提供决策支持。以“中国农情遥感速报系统”使用的GVG农情采样系统和样条采样框架为基础 ,提出了快速获取全国农作物种植结构的技术方法 ,并以 2 0 0 2年为例 ,开展全国夏粮和秋粮种植结构的调查与现状分析。全国夏粮的粮经比例为 5 8%∶2 1% ,秋粮的粮经比例为 79%∶14 % ,粮食作物仍然占有较大的比例。调查表明 ,全国范围的种植结构在时间和空间上变化很大。黑龙江省的大豆种植成数最高 ,达到38% ,是中国的大豆主产区 ;吉林和辽宁两省的春玉米种植成数相差不大 ,高达 71% ;黄淮海地区夏粮以种植冬小麦为主 ,种植成数高达 97% (河北省 ) ,秋粮以夏玉米为主 ,种植成数高达 82 % (河南 ) ;以长江为界 ,冬小麦和油料在长江南北的种植成数变化很大 ,长江以北冬小麦与油料并重 ,以南以油料为主。秋粮则以中晚稻为主 ,种植成数均超过 6 6 % ;华南夏粮和秋粮均以水稻为主 ,其中广东的蔬菜瓜果的种植成数高达 2 9% ;西南地区的秋粮以中稻和夏玉米为主 ,其中云南省的棉麻糖的种植成数高达19% ,说明云南省仍然是中国的烟草大省。经济发达或邻近经济发达地区的省份的蔬菜瓜果的种植成数较大 ,如天津市高达 34%。     

Deriving Crop Phenology Metrics and Their Trends Using Times Series NOAA-AVHRR NDVI Data

In this study, an attempt has been made to derive the spatial patterns of temporal trends in phenology metrics and productivity of crops grown, at disaggregated level in Indo-Gangetic Plains of India (IGP), which are helpful in understanding the impact of climatic, ecological and socio-economic drivers. The NOAA-AVHRR NDVI PAL dataset from 1981 to 2001 was stacked as per the crop year and subjected to Savitzky-Golay filtering. For crop pixels, maximum and minimum values of normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), their time of occurrence and total duration of kharif (June-October) and rabi (November–April) crop seasons were derived for each crop year and later subjected to pixel-wise regression with time to derive the rate and direction of change. The maximum NDVI value showed increasing trends across IGP during both kharif and rabi seasons indicating a general increase in productivity of crops. The trends in time of occurrence of peak NDVI during kharif dominated with rice showed that the maximum vegetative growth stage was happening early with time during study period across most of Punjab, North Haryana, Parts of Central and East Uttar Pradesh and some parts of Bihar and West Bengal. Only central parts of Haryana showed a delay in occurrence of maximum vegetative stage with time. During rabi, no significant trends in occurrence of peak NDVI were observed in most of Punjab and Haryana except in South Punjab and North Haryana where early occurrence of peak NDVI with time was observed. Most parts of Central and Eastern Uttar Pradesh, North Bihar and West Bengal showed a delay in occurrence of peak NDVI with time. In general, the rice dominating system was showing an increase in duration with time in Punjab, Haryana, Western Uttar Pradesh, Central Uttar Pradesh and South Bihar whereas in some parts of North Bihar and West Bengal a decrease in the duration with time was also observed. During rabi season, except Punjab, the wheat dominating system was showing a decreasing trend in crop duration with time.     

Estimation of Rice Yield with a Process-Based Model and Remote Sensing Data in the Middle and Lower Reaches of Yangtze River of China

Accurate simulation of rice yield is very important and vital for agriculture and food security. This study has analyzed the applicability of the RS-P-YEC (the remote-sensing-photosynthesis-yield estimation for crops) model for the rice yield simulation of the Middle and Lower Reaches of Yangtze River (MLRYR) in China. The simulated rice yield was compared with the actual statistical dataset, so as to obtain the accuracy of the model results. The results showed that the correlation coefficients (R) between simulated rice yield and statistical data is 0.708 (P < 0.01), the average relative errors were 9, 6.5, 7.2 %, and the root mean square errors were 777.5, 606.4, 693.4 kg/ha in 2007, 2008 and 2009, respectively. It indicated that the RS-P-YEC model can be used to estimate rice yield in the MLRYR region of China.     

Satellite-based investigation of flood-affected rice cultivation areas in Chao Phraya River Delta,Thailand

The occurrence of catastrophic floods in Thailand in 2011 caused significant damage to rice agriculture. This study investigated flood-affected rice cultivation areas in the Chao Phraya River Delta (CRD) rice bowl, Thailand using time-series moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) data. The data were processed for 2008 (normal flood year) and 2011, comprising four main steps: (1) data pre-processing to construct time-series MODIS vegetation indices (VIs), to filter noise from the time-series VIs by the empirical mode decomposition (EMD), and to mask out non-agricultural areas in respect to water-related cropping areas; (2) flood-affected area classification using the unsupervised linear mixture model (ULMM); (3) rice crop classification using the support vector machines (SVM); and (4) accuracy assessment of flood and rice crop mapping results. The comparisons between the flood mapping results and the ground reference data indicated an overall accuracy of 97.9% and Kappa coefficient of 0.62 achieved for 2008, and 95.7% and 0.77 for 2011, respectively. These results were reaffirmed by close agreement (R² > 0.8) between comparisons of the two datasets at the provincial level. The crop mapping results compared with the ground reference data revealed that the overall accuracies and Kappa coefficients obtained for 2008 were 88.5% and 0.82, and for 2011 were 84.1% and 0.76, respectively. A strong correlation was also found between MODIS-derived rice area and rice area statistics at the provincial level (R² > 0.7). Rice crop maps overlaid on the flood-affected area maps showed that approximately 16.8% of the rice cultivation area was affected by floods in 2011 compared to 4.9% in 2008. A majority of the flood-expanded area was observed for the double-cropped rice (10.5%), probably due to flood-induced effects to the autumn–summer and rainy season crops. Information achieved from this study could be useful for agricultural planners to mitigate possible impacts of floods on rice production.     

Snow Cover Area Mapping Using Synthetic Aperture Radar in Manali Watershed of Beas River in the Northwest Himalayas

The current study has used Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite data to estimate the Snow Cover Area (SCA) in Manali watershed of Beas River in Northwest Himalayas of Himachal Pradesh, India. SAR data used in this study is of Radarsat-2 (RS2) and Environmental Satellite (ENVISAT), Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR). The SAR preprocessing was done with SAR image processing tools for converting raw SAR images into calibrated geo-coded backscatter images. Maps for forest, built area, layover and shadow were created and used for masking snow cover in these areas. The backscattering ratio of wet snow to reference image threshold method with value range from ?2 to ?3 db was used to estimate wet SCA for study area. In this technique, if the threshold is too high (≥-2 db) wet SCA is overestimated and if it is too low (≤-3db), this method underestimates the SCA. The wet SCA is under/over estimated (+6 % to?8 % on average) in late spring season due to the inherent terrain and SAR imaging effects of layover/foreshortening and shadow and also due to the masking of forest areas. Overall, the SCA derived from SAR data matches well when compared with total SCA derived from cloud free optical remote sensing data products, especially during wet season.     

Simulation analysis on the relationship between the leaf area index and polarimetric parameters of crops

Abstract

The leaf area index (LAI) is an important parameter to quantitatively describe the structure of vegetation and crops. Uncertainty in the relationship between the LAI and polarimetric parameters is the key problem for LAI estimation from polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (POLSAR) data. However, the existing POLSAR data have difficulties meeting the demand of the aforementioned research. This paper analyses the correlations between the LAI and the polarimetric parameters derived from Cloude and Freeman decompositions using simulated POLSAR data based on a coherent scattering model for maize and wheat. The results show: (1) The POLSAR data at C-band with a large incidence angle (40 degrees) are very suitable for finding the LAI for maize and wheat. (2) For maize there is a strong correlation between the scattering type angle and the LAI at C-band with a large incidence angle, and the coherency entropy, anisotropy, and the power of the double-bounce scattering power component also have significant correlations with the LAI. (3) For wheat at C-band with a high incidence angle, although the correlation coefficient is low, there is still a correlation between the entropy, anisotropy and LAI. Besides, the volume scattering is suitable for extracting the LAI for wheat at X-band.