Forecast of wheat yield throughout the agricultural season using optical and radar satellite images

The aim of this study is to estimate the capabilities of forecasting the yield of wheat using an artificial neural network combined with multi-temporal satellite data acquired at high spatial resolution throughout the agricultural season in the optical and/or microwave domains. Reflectance (acquired by Formosat-2, and Spot 4–5 in the green, red, and near infrared wavelength) and multi-configuration backscattering coefficients (acquired by TerraSAR-X and Radarsat-2 in the X- and C-bands, at co- (abbreviated HH and VV) and cross-polarization states (abbreviated HV and VH)) constitute the input variable of the artificial neural networks, which are trained and validated on the successively acquired images, providing yield forecast in near real-time conditions. The study is based on data collected over 32 fields of wheat distributed over a study area located in southwestern France, near Toulouse. Among the tested sensor configurations, several satellite data appear useful for the yield forecasting throughout the agricultural season (showing coefficient of determination (R²) larger than 0.60 and a root mean square error (RMSE) lower than 9.1 quintals by hectare (q ha⁻¹)): C_VH, C_HV, or the combined used of X_HH and C_HH, C_HH and C_HV, or green reflectance and C_HH. Nevertheless, the best accurate forecast (R² = 0.76 and RMSE = 7.0 q ha⁻¹) is obtained longtime before the harvest (on day 98, during the elongation of stems) using the combination of co- and cross-polarized backscattering coefficients acquired in the C-band (C_VV and C_VH). These results highlight the high interest of using synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data instead of optical ones to early forecast the yield before the harvest of wheat.     

Modified Dubois Model for Estimating Soil Moisture with Dual Polarized SAR Data

This paper discusses a new methodology to estimate soil moisture in agriculture region using SAR data with the use of HH and HV polarization. In this study the semi empirical model derived by Dubois et al. (IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 33(4), 915–926, 1995) was modified to work using σ _HH instead of two like polarization equations σ_HH, σ_VV so that soil moisture can be obtained for the larger area frequently. The field derived roughness correlated with the cross polarization ratio (HV/HH) to replace the one unknown parameter ‘s’ in the Dubois model and hence the dielectric constant was derived by inverting the Dubois model equation (HH). The Topp et al. (Water Resources Research, 16(3), 574–582, 1980) model was used to retrieve soil moisture using the dielectric constant. The mid incidence angle was used to overcome the incident angle effect and it worked successfully to the larger extent. The result is realistic overall, especially where surface has less variation in the roughness and vegetation since the penetration capability of C-band is limited when plant grows hence model valid in the initial period of cultivation. The derived model is having good scope for soil moisture monitoring with the present availability of Indian RISAT data.     

Development of an inversion algorithm for dry snow density estimation and its application with ENVISAT-ASAR dual co-polarization data

Radar remote sensing has great potential to determine the extent and properties of snow cover. Availability of space-borne sensor dual-polarization C-band data of environmental satellite- (ENVISAT-) advanced synthetic aperture radar (ASAR) can enhance the accuracy in measurement of snow physical parameters as compared with single polarization data measurement. This study shows the capability of C-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data for estimating dry snow density over snow covered rugged terrain in Himalayan region. The snow density is an important parameter for the snow hydrology and avalanche forecasting related studies. An algorithm has been developed for estimating snow density, based on snow volume scattering and snow-ground scattering components. The radar backscattering coefficients of both horizontal–horizontal (hh) and vertical–vertical (vv) polarization and incidence angle are used as inputs in the algorithm to provide the snow dielectric constant which can be used to derive snow density using Looyenga's semi-empirical formula. Comparison was made between snow density estimated from algorithm using ENVISAT-ASAR hh and vv polarization data and the measured field value. The mean absolute error between estimated and measured snow density was found to be 0.024 g/cm³.     

3-D visualizations of coastal bathymetry by utilization of airborne TOPSAR polarized data

Abstract

Multi-frequency C and L bands in the TOPSAR data have been utilized to reconstruct three-dimensional (3-D) bathymetry pattern. The main objective of this study is to utilize fuzzy arithmetic to reduce the errors arising from speckle in synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data when constructing ocean bathymetry from polarized SAR data. In doing so, two 3-D surface models, the Volterra algorithm and a fuzzy B-spline (FBS) algorithm, which construct a global topological structure between the data points, were used to support an approximation to the real surface. Volterra algorithm was used to express the non-linearity of TOPSAR data intensity gradient based on the action balance equation (ABC). In this context, a first-order kernel of Volterra algorithm was used to express ABC equation. The inverse of Volterra algorithm then performed to simulate 2-D current velocities from C_VV and L_HH band. Furthermore, the 2-D continuity equation then used to estimate the water depth. In order to reconstruct 3-D bathymetry pattern, the FBS has been performed to water depth information which was estimated from 2-D continuity equation. The best reconstruction of coastal bathymetry of the test site in Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia, was obtained with polarized L and C bands SAR acquired with HH and VV polarizations, respectively. With 10 m spatial resolution of TOPSAR data, bias of –0.004 m, the standard error mean of 0.023 m, r ² value of 0.95, and 90% confidence intervals in depth determination was obtained with L_HH band.     

An Effective Model to Retrieve Soil Moisture from L- and C-Band SAR Data

This study investigated an appropriate method for soil moisture retrieval from radar images and coincident ground measurements acquired over bare soil and sparsely vegetated regions. The adopted approach based on a single scattering integral equation method (IEM) was developed to establish the relationship between backscatter coefficient and surface soil parameters including volumetric soil moisture content and surface roughness. The performance of IEM in 0–7.6 cm is better than that in 0–20 cm. Moreover, IEM can simulate correctly the backscatter coefficients only for the root mean square (RMS) height s < 1.5 cm at C-band and s < 2.5 cm at L-band by using an exponential correlation function and for s > 1.5 cm at C-band and s > 2.5 cm at L-band by using Gaussian function. However, due to the difficulties involved in the parameterization of soil surface roughness, the estimated accuracy is not satisfactory for the inversion of IEM. This paper used a combined roughness parameter and Fresnel reflection coefficient to develop an empirical model. Simulations were performed to support experimental results and to highlight soil moisture content and surface roughness effects in different polarizations. Results showed that a good agreement was found between the IEM simulations and the SAR measurements over a wide range of soil moisture and surface roughness characteristics. The model had a significant operational advantage in soil moisture retrieval. The correlation coefficients were 77.03 % at L-band and 81.45 % at C-band with the RMSEs of 0.515 and 0.4996 dB, respectively. Additionally, this work offered insight into the required application accuracy of soil moisture retrieval at a large area of arid regions.     

Estimation of rice grain yield from dual-polarization Radarsat-2 SAR data by integrating a rice canopy scattering model and a genetic algorithm

Fast and accurate estimation of rice yield plays a role in forecasting rice productivity for ensuring regional or national food security. Microwave synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data has been proved to have a great potential for rice monitoring and parameters retrieval. In this study, a rice canopy scattering model (RCSM) was revised and then was applied to simulate the backscatter of rice canopy. The combination of RCSM and genetic algorithm (GA) was proposed for retrieving two important rice parameters relating to grain yield, ear length and ear number density, from a C-band, dual-polarization (HH and HV) Radarsat-2 SAR data. The stability of retrieved results of GA inversion was also evaluated by changing various parameter configurations.Results show that RCSM can effectively simulate backscattering coefficients of rice canopy at HH and HV mode with an error of <1 dB. Reasonable selection of GA’s parameters is essential for stability and efficiency of rice parameter retrieval. Two rice parameters are retrieved by the proposed RCSM-GA technology with better accuracy. The rice ear length are estimated with error of <1.5 cm, and ear number density with error of <23 #/m². Rice grain yields are effectively estimated and mapped by the retrieved ear length and number density via a simple yield regression equation. This study further illustrates the capability of C-band Radarsat-2 SAR data on retrieval of rice ear parameters and the practicability of radar remote sensing technology for operational yield estimation.     

Estimation of Snow Cover Area,Snow Physical Properties and Glacier Classification in Parts of Western Himalayas Using C-Band SAR Data

Snow physical properties, snow cover and glacier facies are important parameters which are used to quantify snowpack characteristics, glacier mass balance and seasonal snow and glacier melt. This study has been done using C-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data of Indian radar imaging satellite, radar imaging satellite-1 (RISAT)-1, to estimate the seasonal snow cover and retrieve snow physical properties (snow wetness and snow density), and glacier radar zones or facies classification in parts of North West Himalaya (NWH), India. Additional SAR data used are of Radarsat-2 (RS-2) satellite, which was used for glacier facies classification of Smudra Tapu glacier in Himachal Pradesh. RISAT-1 based snow cover area (SCA) mapping, snow wetness and snow density retrieval and glacier facies classification have been done for the first time in NWH region. SAR-based inversion models were used for finding out wet and dry snow dielectric constant, dry and wet SCA, snow wetness and snow density. RISAT-1 medium resolution scan-SAR mode (MRS) in HV polarization was used for first time in NWH for deriving time series of SCA maps in Beas and Bhagirathi river basins for years 2013–2014. The SAR-based inversion models were implemented separately for RISAT-1 quad pol. FRS2, for wet snow and dry snow permittivity retrieval. Masks for layover and shadow were considered in estimating final snow parameters. The overall accuracy in terms of R² value comes out to be 0.74 for snow wetness and 0.72 for snow density based on the limited ground truth data for subset area of Manali sub-basin of Beas River up to Manali for winter of 2014. Accuracy for SCA was estimated to be 95 % when compared with optical remote sensing based SCA maps with error of ±10 %. The time series data of RISAT-1 MRS and hybrid data in RH/RV mode based decompositions were also used for glacier radar zones classification for Gangotri and Samudra Tapu glaciers. The various glaciers radar zones or facies such as debris covered glacier ice, clean or bare glacier ice radar zone, percolation/refreeze radar zone and wet snow, ice wall etc., were identified. The accuracy of classified maps was estimated using ground truth data collected during 2013 and 2014 glacier field work to Samudra Tapu and Gangotri glaciers and overall accuracy was found to be in range of 82–90 %. This information of various glacier radar zones can be utilized in marking firn line of glaciers, which can be helpful for glacier mass balance studies.     

Coseismic surface deformation of the 2014 Napa earthquake mapped by Sentinel-1A SAR and accuracy assessment with COSMO-SkyMed and GPS data as cross validation

ABSTRACT

The new land observation satellite Sentinel-1A was launched on 25 April 2014 with a C-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) sensor, which has the significant enhancements in terms of revisit period and high resolution. The Mw 6.1 Napa, California earthquake occurring on 24 August 2014, almost 4 months after the launch, is the first moderate earthquake imaged by the Sentinel-1A. This provides an opportunity to map the coseismic deformation of the event and evaluate the potential of Sentinel-1A SAR for earthquake study. Two techniques including the interferometric SAR (InSAR) and pixel offset-tracking (PO) are, respectively, employed to map the surface deformation along the radar line of sight (LOS), azimuth and slant-range directions. The cross comparison between Sentinel-1A InSAR LOS deformation and GPS observations indicates good agreement with an accuracy of ～2.6?mm. We further estimate the earthquake source model with the external COSMO-SkyMed InSAR and GPS data as constraints, and forward calculate the surface deformation as cross validation with the Sentinel-1A observations. The comparison between the observed and modeled deformation shows that the Sentinel-1A measurement accuracy can achieve 1.6?cm for InSAR technique along LOS direction, and 6.3 and 6.7?cm for PO along azimuth and range directions, respectively.     

Mapping impervious surfaces with the integrated use of Landsat Thematic Mapper and radar data: A case study in an urban–rural landscape in the Brazilian Amazon

This research explored the integrated use of Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) and radar (i.e., ALOS PALSAR L-band and RADARSAT-2 C-band) data for mapping impervious surface distribution to examine the roles of radar data with different spatial resolutions and wavelengths. The wavelet-merging technique was used to merge TM and radar data to generate a new dataset. A constrained least-squares solution was used to unmix TM multispectral data and multisensor fusion images to four fraction images (high-albedo, low-albedo, vegetation, and soil). The impervious surface image was then extracted from the high-albedo and low-albedo fraction images. QuickBird imagery was used to develop an impervious surface image for use as reference data to evaluate the results from TM and fusion images. This research indicated that increasing spatial resolution by multisensor fusion improved spatial patterns of impervious surface distribution, but cannot significantly improve the statistical area accuracy. This research also indicated that the fusion image with 10-m spatial resolution was suitable for mapping impervious surface spatial distribution, but TM multispectral image with 30 m was too coarse in a complex urban–rural landscape. On the other hand, this research showed that no significant difference in improving impervious surface mapping performance by using either PALSAR L-band or RADARSAT C-band data with the same spatial resolution when they were used for multi-sensor fusion with the wavelet-based method.     

Selection of Forest Stands for Stem Volume Retrieval From Stable ERS Tandem InSAR Observations

Environmental factors influence the accuracy in stem volume retrieval using European Remote Sensing Satellite (ERS) tandem synthetic aperture radar (SAR) interferometry. Some forest stands are more sensitive than others to heterogeneity of environmental properties, forest properties, and noise. It is shown that the consistency of coherence observations between different image pairs or the consistency of the estimated stem volume can be used to sort forest stands according to increasing errors in stem volume estimates associated with varying forest properties. Fifteen ERS tandem pairs were used to determine the relative root mean square error (RMSE) of stem volume estimated from C-band SAR interferometry. The test site, Tuusula in Finland, contains 210 forest stands with stem volumes up to 539 m³/ha. RMSE varies between 17% and 63% depending on number and type of stands included in the retrieval accuracy analysis. The more homogeneous forest stands with larger area and higher stem volumes of spruce and pine are those with highest retrieval accuracy     

Earth observations during space shuttle mission STS‐34: 18–23 October 1989

Abstract

Although high‐resolution microwave synthetic aperture radar (SAR) sensors possess all‐weather capability for mapping soil moisture from spaceborne platforms, continuous temporal and spatial monitoring of this important hydrological parameter has been relatively limited. However, the recent launch of operational SAR sensors aboard various satellites have made possible synoptic soil moisture monitoring a reality. Such systems operate over a wide range of frequencies, look angles, and polarization combinations, and thus show synergistic advantages when combined for estimating soil moisture patterns. Two soil moisture inversion algorithms have been developed using as inputs radar backscattering data at L, S, and C bands in the microwave frequency range. These models have been tested using radar image simulation with speckle added. It is observed that the neural network algorithm yields superior results in mapping actual soil moisture patterns over the linear statistical inversion technique, although both models show comparable errors in soil moisture estimation. We infer that using statistical estimation errors alone for comparison purposes may lead to erroneous conclusions regarding the advantages of one soil moisture inversion algorithm over another.     

双极化SAR数据反演裸露地表土壤水分

为了较高精度地获取大范围地表土壤水分,提出一种基于双极化合成孔径雷达数据的裸露地表土壤水分反演模型即非线性方程组,通过改进的粒子群算法求解非线性方程组从而得到土壤水分。首先通过AIEM模型数值模拟和回归分析,得到一种新的组合粗糙度,然后模拟分析得到土壤水分与雷达后向散射系数的关系,从而建立雷达后向散射系数与组合粗糙度、土壤水分的经验关系。利用ASAR C波段双极化雷达数据,基于经验关系和改进的粒子群算法即可实现土壤水分的反演。经过黑河流域实测土壤水分数据对模型进行验证,反演结果与实测数据具备良好的相关性(R~2=0.778 6)。与以往同一区域研究成果比较,文中的方法反演精度有所提高,更适用于裸露地表土壤水分反演。     

Upscaling plot-scale soil respiration in winter wheat and summer maize rotation croplands in Julu County,North China

Soil respiration (R_s) data from 45 plots were used to estimate the spatial patterns of R_s during the peak growing seasons of winter wheat and summer maize in Julu County, North China, by combining satellite remote sensing data, field-measured data, and a support vector regression (SVR) model. The observed R_s values were well reproduced by the model at the plot scale, with a root-mean-square error (RMSE) of 0.31 μmol CO₂ m⁻² s⁻¹ and a coefficient of determination (R²) of 0.73. No significant difference was detected between the prediction accuracy of the SVR model for winter wheat and summer maize. With forcing from satellite remote sensing data and gridded soil property data, we used the SVR model to predict the spatial distributions of R_s during the peak growing seasons of winter wheat and summer maize rotation croplands in Julu County. The SVR model captured the spatial variations of R_s at the county scale. The satellite-derived enhanced vegetation index was found to be the most important input used to predict R_s. Removal of this variable caused an RMSE increase from 0.31 μmol CO₂ m⁻² s⁻¹ to 0.42 μmol CO₂ m⁻² s⁻¹. Soil properties such as soil organic carbon (SOC) content and soil bulk density (SBD) were the second most important factors. Their removal led to an RMSE increase from 0.31 μmol CO₂ m⁻² s⁻¹ to 0.37 μmol CO₂ m⁻² s⁻¹. The SVR model performed better than multiple regression in predicting spatial variations of R_s in winter wheat and summer maize rotation croplands, as shown by the comparison of the R² and RMSE values of the two algorithms. The spatial patterns of R_s are better captured using the SVR model than performing multiple regression, particularly for the relatively high and relatively low R_s values at the center and northeast study areas. Therefore, SVR shows promise for predicting spatial variations of R_s values on the basis of remotely sensed data and gridded soil property data at the county scale.     

Impact of the spatial resolution of climatic data and soil physical properties on regional corn yield predictions using the STICS crop model

The assimilation of Earth observation (EO) data into crop models has proven to be an efficient way to improve yield prediction at a regional scale by estimating key unknown crop management practices. However, the efficiency of prediction depends on the uncertainty associated with the data provided to crop models, particularly climatic data and soil physical properties. In this study, the performance of the STICS (Simulateur mulTIdisciplinaire pour les Cultures Standard) crop model for predicting corn yield after assimilation of leaf area index derived from EO data was evaluated under different scenarios. The scenarios were designed to examine the impact of using fine-resolution soil physical properties, as well as the impact of using climatic data from either one or four weather stations across the region of interest. The results indicate that when only one weather station was used, the average annual yield by producer was predicted well (absolute error <5%), but the spatial variability lacked accuracy (root mean square error = 1.3 t ha⁻¹). The model root mean square error for yield prediction was highly correlated with the distance between the weather stations and the fields, for distances smaller than 10 km, and reached 0.5 t ha⁻¹ for a 5-km distance when fine-resolution soil properties were used. When four weather stations were used, no significant improvement in model performance was observed. This was because of a marginal decrease (30%) in the average distance between fields and weather stations (from 10 to 7 km). However, the yield predictions were improved by approximately 15% with fine-resolution soil properties regardless of the number of weather stations used. The impact of the uncertainty associated with the EO-derived soil textures and the impact of alterations in rainfall distribution were also evaluated. A variation of about 10% in any of the soil physical textures resulted in a change in dry yield of 0.4 t ha⁻¹. Changes in rainfall distribution between two abundant rainfalls during the growing season led to a significant change in yield (0.5 t ha⁻¹ on average). Our results highlight the importance of using fine-resolution gridded daily precipitation data to capture spatial variations of rainfall as well as using fine-resolution soil properties instead of coarse-resolution soil properties from the Canadian soil dataset, especially for regions with high pedodiversity.     

广东肇庆地区SIR-C森林雷达后向散射特征分析

森林雷达后向散射特征的研究是森林微波遥感应用的重要前提。本文利用不连续树冠森林微波后向散射模型模拟了肇庆地区松树林的雷达后向散射特征,并与从ＳＩＲ－Ｃ图像提取的雷达后向散射特征进行对比,从而分析和探讨了该区松树的雷达后向散射机制。     

Influence of surface and vegetation characteristics on C-band radar measurements for soil moisture content

Soil moisture estimation using microwave remote sensing faces challenges of the segregation of influences mainly from roughness and vegetation. Under static surface conditions, it was found that Radarsat C-band SAR shows reasonably good correlation and sensitivity with changing soil moisture. Dynamic surface and vegetation conditions are supposed to result in a substantial reduction in radar sensitivity to soil moisture. A C-band scatterometer system (5.2 GHz) with a multi-polarization and multi-angular configuration was used 12 times to sense the soil moisture over a tall vegetated grass field. A score of vegetation and soil parameters were recorded on every occasion of the experiment. Three radar backscattering models Viz., Integral Equation Model (IEM), an empirical model and a volume scattering model, have been used to predict the backscattering phenomena. The volume scattering model, using the Distorted Born Approximation, is found to predict the backscattering phenomena reasonably well. But the surface scattering models are expectedly found to be inadequate for the purpose. The temporal variation of soil moisture does show good empirical relationship with the observed radar backscattering. But as the vegetation biomass increases, the radar shows higher sensitivity to the vegetation parameters compared to surface characteristics. A sensitivity analysis of the volume scattering model for all the parameters also reveals that the radar is more sensitive to plant parameters under high biomass conditions, particularly vegetation water content, but the sensitivity to surface characteristics, particularly to soil moisture, is also appreciable.     

局部统计活动轮廓模型的SAR图像海岸线检测

首次将局部统计活动轮廓模型引入SAR图像海岸线检测问题中,提出了一种基于局部统计活动轮廓模型的SAR 图像海岸线检测方法。首先利用C-V模型进行粗分割,消除局部统计活动轮廓模型对初始轮廓线设置要求严格的限制,然后提出了一种基于G⁰分布的局部统计活动轮廓模型,进行精细分割。该模型采用G⁰分布对轮廓线上每一点的邻域进行统计建模,增强了模型数据拟合能力,提高了海岸线检测精度,加入水平集函数惩罚项,消除了重新初始化过程。实测SAR图像实验表明,本文方法可用于精确海岸线检测。     

Extracting urban water bodies from high-resolution radar images: Measuring the urban surface morphology to control for radar’s double-bounce effect

Satellite remote sensing is an effective method for extracting water bodies on a large scale. Radar imagery, such as synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery, can penetrate clouds and provide opportunities for water body identification when in situ observations are difficult to obtain because of severe weather conditions. However, when using SAR images in urban areas to extract water bodies, the radar’s double-bounce effect results in complicated backscatter patterns of water near urban features such as buildings due to the side-looking properties of SAR sensors and the vertical urban structures. Therefore, the objective of this study is to propose a reliable urban water extraction framework for SAR images that integrates urban surface morphological features for controlling radar’s multiple bounces. Statistical (logistic regression) and machine-learning (random forest) models were used to explore how radar’s double-bounce effect influences the prediction performance of urban water extraction. Our findings indicate that when extracting urban water bodies, urban water’s backscatter values could be significantly interfered by the neighboring building density above a threshold height that contributes to radar’s multiple bounces. Without model calibration, our framework incorporating urban surface morphology demonstrates high prediction ability with an Area Under the Curve (AUC) of 0.914 and with 97.0% of urban water cells correctly identified by testing in another city sharing similar urban forms. In summary, our study provides a better understanding of the role of the urban surface morphology in the double-bounce effect in SAR images, specifically for differentiating urban water and land, thereby improving the accuracy of urban water extraction and enhancing the feasibility of further applications of SAR imagery under complex urban landscapes.     

A comparative data-fusion analysis of multi-sensor satellite images

Remote-sensing data play an important role in extracting information with the help of various sensors having different spectral, spatial and temporal resolutions. Therefore, data fusion, which merges images of different spatial and spectral resolutions, plays an important role in information extraction. This research investigates quality-assessment methods of multisensor (synthetic aperture radar [SAR] and optical) data fusion. In the analysis, three SAR data-sets from different sensors (RADARSAT-1, ALOS-PALSAR and ENVISAT-ASAR) and optical data from SPOT-2 were used. Although the PALSAR and the RADARSAT-1 images have the same resolutions and polarisations, images are gathered in different frequencies (L and C bands, respectively). The ASAR sensor also has C-band radar, but with lower (25 m) resolution. Since the frequency is a key factor for penetration depth, it is thought that the use of different SAR data might give interesting results as an output. This study describes a comparative study of multisensor fusion methods, namely the intensity-hue-saturation, Ehlers, and Brovey techniques, by using different statistical analysis techniques, namely the bias of mean, correlation coefficient, standard deviation difference and universal image quality index methods. The results reveal that Ehlers' method is superior to the others in terms of spectral and statistical fidelity.