Visible/Infrared/Microwave Agriculture Classification, Biomass, and Plant Height Algorithms

This paper describes the results of a study to determine if visible, infrared, and microwave data is correlated to crop-canopy characteristics (biomass and crop height) and can improve estimates of crop acreage. The objectives were to 1) determine if different crops can be discriminated using multifrequency microwave data, and 2) determine which visible, infrared, and microwave spectral regions can classify crops and correlate well to plant biomass, crop height, and the perpendicular vegetation index (PVI). The study was conducted at Dalhart, Texas, in 1980. Aircraft multispectral data collected during the study included visible and infrared data and active multifrequency microwave data. Ground-truth data from each field consisted of soil moisture, total plant biomass, and crop height. Results indicated that C- (4.75 GHz), L- (1.6 GHz), and P- (0.4 GHz) band active microwave data combined with visible and infrared data maintained or improved crop-discrimination accuracy compared to models using only visible and infrared data. The active microwave frequencies were more sensitive to plant height differences than total biomass differences; the K- (13.3 GHz) and C-bands were sensitive to height variations in short plants, while the P-band was sensitive to differences between tall and short plants.