Evaluation of the Applicability of Rice Growth Monitoring on Seosan and Pyongyang Region using RADARSAT-2 SAR -By Comparing RapidEye

Radar remote sensing is appropriate for rice monitoring because the areas where this crop is cultivated are often cloudy and rainy. Especially, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) can acquire remote sensing information with a high temporal resolution in tropical and subtropical regions due to its all-weather capability. This paper analyzes the relationships between backscattering coefficients of rice measured by RADARSAT-2 SAR and growth parameters during a rice growth period. And we applied the relationships to crop monitoring of paddy rice in North Korea. As a result, plant height and Leaf Area Index (LAI) increased until Day Of Year (DOY) 234 and then decreased, while fresh weight and dry weight increased until DOY 253. Correlation coefficients revealed that Horizontal transmit and Horizontal receive polarization (HH)-polarization backscattering coefficients were correlated highly with plant height (r