Biophysical Estimation of Paddy Rice with Canopy Scattering Model and ALOS/PALSAR Imagery in Southeast China

Rice is a major food supply in southeast China. With increased population and urbanization, reliable rice mapping is critical to meet the socioeconomic need in this region. A 1^st-order radiative transfer model was developed in this study to simulate L-band scattering properties of paddy rice and to relate it to biophysical estimation. The simulated HH backscatter in sample fields matched with the variation of PALSAR observations although the simulated backscatter coefficients were around 3dB lower than image-extracted values. HH backscatter was more sensitive to rice´s structural variation than VV and therefore, was more useful in rice modeling and bio-mapping studies.