A model of corn radar reflectivity at full growth stage

The subject of this work is to set up, to test and to analyse a model of the corn radar reflectivity suited to the last growth stage: after the canopy closure. Historically, the first approach used for the description of the attenuation and scattering properties of corn was the cloud model which is still frequently used. However, it is now considered as a tendency predicting tool which must be used with attenuation and scattering coefficients specific to the vegetation considered. Indeed, several studies have shown for corn or for soybean, that the scatterers dimensions cannot be neglected as soon as they are comparable or larger than the wavelength. The radiative transfer theory is well suited to the description of the attenuation and scattering properties of random media containing such scatterers. For this reason, this theory is widely used for vegetation radar reflectivity modelling. The complete polarimetric radiative transfer theory has been used