Comparison between Dense L-Band and C-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Time Series for Crop Area Mapping over a NISAR Calibration-Validation Site
Crop area mapping is important for tracking agricultural production and supporting food security. Spaceborne approaches using synthetic aperture radar (SAR) now allow for mapping crop area at moderate spatial and temporal resolutions. Multi-frequency SAR data is highly useful for crop monitoring bec...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2021-02-01
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| Series: | Agronomy |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4395/11/2/273 |
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| author | Simon Kraatz Nathan Torbick Xianfeng Jiao Xiaodong Huang Laura Dingle Robertson Andrew Davidson Heather McNairn Michael H. Cosh Paul Siqueira |
| author_facet | Simon Kraatz Nathan Torbick Xianfeng Jiao Xiaodong Huang Laura Dingle Robertson Andrew Davidson Heather McNairn Michael H. Cosh Paul Siqueira |
| author_sort | Simon Kraatz |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Crop area mapping is important for tracking agricultural production and supporting food security. Spaceborne approaches using synthetic aperture radar (SAR) now allow for mapping crop area at moderate spatial and temporal resolutions. Multi-frequency SAR data is highly useful for crop monitoring because backscatter response from vegetation canopies is wavelength dependent. This study evaluates the utility of C-band Sentinel-1B (Sentinel-1) and L-band ALOS-2 (PALSAR) data, collected during the 2019 growing season, for generating accurate active crop extent (crop vs. non-crop) classifications over an agricultural region in western Canada. Evaluations were performed against the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada satellite-based Annual Cropland Inventory (ACI), an open data product that maps land cover across the extent of Canada’s agricultural land. Classifications were performed using the temporal coefficient of variation (CV) approach, where an optimal crop/non-crop delineating CV threshold (CV<sub>thr</sub>) is selected according to Youden’s J-statistic. Results show that crop area mapping agreed better with the ACI when using Sentinel-1 data (83.5%) compared to PALSAR (73.2%). Analysis of performance by crop reveals that PALSAR’s poorer performance can be attributed to soybean, urban, grassland, and pasture ACI classes. This study also compared CV values to in situ wet biomass data for canola and soybeans, showing that crops with lower biomass (soybean) had correspondingly lower CV values. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T06:12:35Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-51e6157b8cae42d9bdd89b9b3084f281 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2073-4395 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T06:12:35Z |
| publishDate | 2021-02-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Agronomy |
| spelling | doaj.art-51e6157b8cae42d9bdd89b9b3084f2812023-12-03T11:56:11ZengMDPI AGAgronomy2073-43952021-02-0111227310.3390/agronomy11020273Comparison between Dense L-Band and C-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Time Series for Crop Area Mapping over a NISAR Calibration-Validation SiteSimon Kraatz0Nathan Torbick1Xianfeng Jiao2Xiaodong Huang3Laura Dingle Robertson4Andrew Davidson5Heather McNairn6Michael H. Cosh7Paul Siqueira8Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003, USAApplied Geosolutions, Durham, NH 03857, USAScience and Technology Branch, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Ottawa, ON K1A 0C6, CanadaApplied Geosolutions, Durham, NH 03857, USAScience and Technology Branch, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Ottawa, ON K1A 0C6, CanadaScience and Technology Branch, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Ottawa, ON K1A 0C6, CanadaScience and Technology Branch, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Ottawa, ON K1A 0C6, CanadaUSDA ARS Hydrology and Remote Sensing Laboratory, Beltsville, MD 20705, USADepartment of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003, USACrop area mapping is important for tracking agricultural production and supporting food security. Spaceborne approaches using synthetic aperture radar (SAR) now allow for mapping crop area at moderate spatial and temporal resolutions. Multi-frequency SAR data is highly useful for crop monitoring because backscatter response from vegetation canopies is wavelength dependent. This study evaluates the utility of C-band Sentinel-1B (Sentinel-1) and L-band ALOS-2 (PALSAR) data, collected during the 2019 growing season, for generating accurate active crop extent (crop vs. non-crop) classifications over an agricultural region in western Canada. Evaluations were performed against the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada satellite-based Annual Cropland Inventory (ACI), an open data product that maps land cover across the extent of Canada’s agricultural land. Classifications were performed using the temporal coefficient of variation (CV) approach, where an optimal crop/non-crop delineating CV threshold (CV<sub>thr</sub>) is selected according to Youden’s J-statistic. Results show that crop area mapping agreed better with the ACI when using Sentinel-1 data (83.5%) compared to PALSAR (73.2%). Analysis of performance by crop reveals that PALSAR’s poorer performance can be attributed to soybean, urban, grassland, and pasture ACI classes. This study also compared CV values to in situ wet biomass data for canola and soybeans, showing that crops with lower biomass (soybean) had correspondingly lower CV values.https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4395/11/2/273PALSARSentinelcrop area mappingJECAM |
| spellingShingle | Simon Kraatz Nathan Torbick Xianfeng Jiao Xiaodong Huang Laura Dingle Robertson Andrew Davidson Heather McNairn Michael H. Cosh Paul Siqueira Comparison between Dense L-Band and C-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Time Series for Crop Area Mapping over a NISAR Calibration-Validation Site Agronomy PALSAR Sentinel crop area mapping JECAM |
| title | Comparison between Dense L-Band and C-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Time Series for Crop Area Mapping over a NISAR Calibration-Validation Site |
| title_full | Comparison between Dense L-Band and C-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Time Series for Crop Area Mapping over a NISAR Calibration-Validation Site |
| title_fullStr | Comparison between Dense L-Band and C-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Time Series for Crop Area Mapping over a NISAR Calibration-Validation Site |
| title_full_unstemmed | Comparison between Dense L-Band and C-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Time Series for Crop Area Mapping over a NISAR Calibration-Validation Site |
| title_short | Comparison between Dense L-Band and C-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Time Series for Crop Area Mapping over a NISAR Calibration-Validation Site |
| title_sort | comparison between dense l band and c band synthetic aperture radar sar time series for crop area mapping over a nisar calibration validation site |
| topic | PALSAR Sentinel crop area mapping JECAM |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4395/11/2/273 |
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