Effects of mechanical planting practices on L-band backscatter from irrigated rice

Multi-temporal JERS-I SAR data have been used to investigate the temporal and spatial characteristics of mechanically planted rice paddy in L_HH band SAR data. The results show that in areas where mechanical planting are practiced, the radar response is strongly dependent on parameters related to the spatial distribution of the plants, in particular to the planting orientation and plant spacing. Fields planted along the radar illumination direction with a certain plant spacing display extreme dynamic ranges (~20 dB) due to resonant scattering. Fields planted in other directions generally experience attenuation of the signal and do not change more than a few dB. Despite these artifacts however, temporal correlation between plant growth and L-band backscatter has been observed for fields planted in all directions