Assessment of stress on vegetation and inherent soil moisture using

AWiFS of ResourceSAT (IRS-P6) data

DSP Rao, Shantanu Bhatawdekar, G. Sreenivasan, AK Joshi, YVN Krishnamurthy & V. Jayaraman
Regional Remote Sensing Service Centre, Department of Space, P.B. 439, Shankar Nagar, NAGPUR

ABSTRACT
ResourceSAT (IRS-P6) satellite provides Advanced Wide Field Sensor (AWiFS) data in
Visible, Near Infrared and Short Wave Infrared (SWIR) spectral bands with spatial
resolution of 56 meters and 10 bit radiometric resolution. Considering the potential of
SWIR band in assessing the moisture stress and the larger swath of AWiFS (740 km x
740 km) and higher revisit (5 days), which is immensely useful for regional studies, an
attempt has been made to study the variability of stress with time.
Two specific areas with different terrain conditions and landuse pattern have been
selected to study the variability of stress on vegetation and inherent soil moisture. These
areas have both irrigated and rain-fed crops. Three season data of Rabi season to summer
season has been used.
o Rain shadow region along the Western ghats in parts of Maharashtra.
o South of Satpudas, parts of Tapi and Purna basin in Maharashtra
Images obtained by space-borne imaging sensor integrate three components: a space
component, atmospheric component and sensor component. The digital numbers were
converted to radiance values using band-wise saturation radiance and offsets and simple
atmospheric corrections were performed by removal of Rayleigh path radiance.
Several indices viz. Moisture Stress Index (MSI), Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI),
Greenness Above Bare Soil (GRABS) and Wetness Index were analyzed to understand
the relationship between vegetation and moisture stress with various indices.
Moisture Stress Index (MSI), Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI), Greenness Above
Bare Soil (GRABS) have shown good correlation in command areas with irrigation and
adjoining un-irrigated rain-fed areas. Similar inferences have also been made for areas
under plantation and permanent vegetation.