Sensitivity of RADARSAT-2 quad polarimetric and simulated compact polarimetric parameters to soil moisture and freeze/thaw state in southwest Ontario

This study assesses the potential of RADARSAT-2 quad polarimetric and compact polarimetric (CP) parameters to monitor soil moisture and freeze/thaw state. The paper presents a preliminary analysis of the synthetic aperture radar (SAR) parameters derived from 14 RADARSAT-2 fine quad-pol images acquired from October 2013 to May 2014 over an agricultural field in Waterloo-Guelph, Ontario. Results indicate sensitivity of CP parameters to soil moisture and their potential usefulness of discerning frozen/unfrozen soils. This suggests that the CP mode can be an alternative data source for large scale soil moisture studies. Further investigation of using CP parameters in soil moisture applications is required to better support the Canadian RADARSAT Constellation Mission (RCM).