Comparison of SAR and optical sensor data for monitoring of rice plant around Hiroshima

Through the research on the application of the multi-temporal data acquired with Landsat-5 TM, SPOT-2 HRV, SPOT-4 HRVIR and RADARSAT-1 SAR to monitoring of rice field following features are clarified. Vegetation indices NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) and EVI (Extended Vegetation Index) derived from different optical sensors TM, HVR, HRVIR indicate nearly same characteristics suggesting validity of calibration of respective sensors. It was found that by combined use of multi-temporal vegetation indices NDVI and EVI together with SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) data it was found that rice planted area can be estimated with the error less than 2%.