(SAR) to Support Agricultural Monitoring 2 - Group on Earth ...

International GEO Workshop on <strong>SAR</strong> <strong>to</strong> <strong>Support</strong> <strong>Agricultural</strong> Moni<strong>to</strong>ring
Anne Smith (AAFC) described the data collection for their research project “Investigating
RADARSAT-2 as a Tool for Moni<strong>to</strong>ring Grassland in Western Canada”. She proposed that
RADARSAT-2 has potential <strong>to</strong> contribute <strong>to</strong> two of the project’s three objectives, namely:
• the spatial extent and fragmentation of native grasslands,
• the invasive plant species, leafy spurge, on native grasslands.
Carlos Cotlier (Universidad Nacional de Rosario, Argentina) highlighted recent work on
identifying crops on small fields in the urban fringe. He concluded that Radarsat-2 Ultra
Fine Beam images are optimum for land use detection of horticulture intensive farming, and
they could detect small plots less than an acre in size. To discriminate the crops, he
recommends using two consecutive Ultra Fine Beam images (24 days apart) with different
polarizations, (e.g. one HH and the other HV), and creating a color composite image HH-HV
or HH/HV.
Christiane Schmullius (Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Germany) presented “Preparing
for Sentinel-1: Operational Capabilities of C-Band Multi-Resolution and Multi-Polarized
<strong>SAR</strong> Data for Crop Mapping”. She concluded that:
• Multitemporal, multipolarized C-Band <strong>SAR</strong>-Data proves very high potential for crop
mapping.
• Optimal polarizations are HV and VV; HH has less information content.
• Temporal resolution is more important for crop mapping than geometric resolution.
She also demonstrated that the overall accuracy could be increased <strong>to</strong> 85% by combining the
<strong>SAR</strong> results with Corine Land Cover 2000 using object segments and a majority function for
allocation of pixels <strong>to</strong> segments.
2.6 Capacity Building Activities and Opportunities
This session described specific programs and projects related <strong>to</strong> capacity building and
opportunities for developing countries <strong>to</strong> take advantage of <strong>SAR</strong> technology. Stéphane
Chalifoux (CSA) presented the SOAR (Science and Operational Applications Research)
Program. He challenged the <strong>Agricultural</strong> Community of Practice <strong>to</strong> discuss with CSA such
opportunities as opening a new initiative, implementing a special project (perhaps through
JECAM) or making a general request <strong>to</strong> all space agencies with <strong>SAR</strong> sensors.
Ron Caves (MDA) described Agri<strong>SAR</strong> 2009, a campaign with the following objectives:
• Simulate Sentinel-1 data products especially in terms of repeat observation, resolution
and polarization.
• Evaluate the performance of Sentinel-1 for agricultural and land cover products based
on dense time series of radar data.
• Evaluate the added value of full and compact polarimetry for the same information
products.
• Develop methodology for the generation and validation of agricultural and land cover
map information products based on C-band radar data.
Data was collected over three diverse agriculture test sites during 2009, and processing is ongoing.
Figure 4 shows a RADARSAT-2 Fine Quad Mode of Flevoland in the Netherlands.
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