Microwave backscattering behaviour of crop canopy:

Spaceborne SAR sensors (e.g., ERS-1, ERS-2, JERS-1, and RADARSAT-1)

were limited to a single frequency and polarization. To obtain enough
information for agriculture applications, multichannel radar observations were
required. Recently several improvements were made to increase the information
content in the SAR data sets, such as the addition of
polarizations (ASAR/ENVISAT, RADARSAT-2), the use of additional
frequencies (TerraSAR-X, COSMO-SkyMed, and PALSAR/ALOS), and the
integration of SAR data with other frequencies and optical sensors that can
provide additional crop and soils information.

1. Direct scattering from canopy

2. Scattering from canopy followed by reflection from ground
3. Reflection from ground followed by scattering from canopy
4. Reflection from ground followed by scattering from canopy again
followed by reflection from ground.

A correct assessment of vegetation water content is essential for the accurate

prediction of backscattering and emission from crop canopies as well as for the
exact assessment of surface soil moisture content. In addition, vegetation water
content could be an important indicator for the presence of water stress in crop
canopies, as well as the phonological stage of the canopy. A saturation effect of
the radar cross section was observed as the canopy becomes denser.

A cross-polarized backscatter is most indicative in scattering mechanisms

and crop condition indicators such as LAI and biomass. Oilseed-rape is a
broadleaf plant and has a different vegetation structure than cereals. The
increase of VH with increasing vegetation in oilseed-rape and cross-polarized
backscatter increased with increasing LAI. VV backscatter is still sensitive to
soil moisture and not yet strongly attenuated by corn field. VH backscatter
increases, with increasing VWC and with increasing LAI and closing crop
cover. Winter cereals comprise barley and wheat, both narrow-leaf crops. The
growing season, phenology and structure of the two crops is very similar. VV
backscatter decreases until the beginning of the stem extension phase of the
winter cereal. Although soil moisture decreases too, small variations in soil
moisture are not reflected in the VV signal.

Factors Controlling Microwave Signals of Crop Canopies:

Various factors that may lead to changes in the structure and function of
crop canopies, and that, therefore, may affect the observed microwave emission
and backscattered signals. Several environmental factors may influence the
observed microwave signals and that disentangling their influence needs both
monitoring of these factors but also quantification of their effect on microwave
signals. The identification of water stress phenomena in particular may be
confounded by other effects also inducing changes in canopy structure
and function. Also, environmental controls, such as soil moisture status and
microclimatology, may affect microwave signals. Identification of water stress
may therefore require monitoring of all relevant parameters and properties
affecting microwave emission and backscattering

Crop identification:

Identification of crop is an art through which unwanted plants can be

separated out from the cropped area. The global potentially available cropland is
limited and cropland expansion is often connected with negative ecological
impacts like deforestation and biodiversity loss, particularly for sensitive
ecosystems. Crops of different species are also separated out on basis of their
morphological features. Unwanted plants in crop field often results in severe
competition for space, light, nutrients etc. and the quality of the produce is
impaired. So, crops and non-crop species should be identified for successful
crop production and better yield.

The main input features for the classifier were four spectral bands of
Landsat, NDVI, derived from three temporal composites, and Sentinel-1 data. A
machine learning algorithms for pixel-based classifications RF, SVM and one
DF approach is used to identify crop.

Using remote sensing data to identify crop types is common, since these
data cover large areas in various temporal and spatial scales. The classification
of different crop types is based on their varying reflectance characteristics in the
course of the year and hence considers nearly always the temporal component.
Hierarchical classification approaches are already effectively used for crop-type
mapping as well as the integration of expert knowledge to establish
classification rules. The classification of crop types in the early season has been
examined in fewer studies. A common approach is the classification based on
the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). Several studies have
applied machine learning techniques to classify crop types, such as decision
trees, support vector machines, random forest or hidden Markov models. The
combination of different sensors with varying spatial and temporal resolutions is
frequently used to increase data availability. Also, radar sensors are successfully
used to differentiate crop types
 .Multitemporal and multispectral remote sensing imagery has been
widely used for crop identification in past years since time series of satellite
images are believed to be a cost-effective data source to assess land cover, such
as agricultural crops over large areas. However, major limitations on crop
identification with satellite imagery, like the similarity of the plant reflectance
of different crops, parcel-to-parcel variability of the plant reflectance of the
same crops and changes in the pattern of individual crop phenology, may occur.
Pixel-based classification approaches, where pixels are classified individually
regardless of their spatial aggregation, generally lead to poor results. To
overcome this problem, object-based techniques have been increasingly used in
remotely-sensed image analysis.

Crop Area Estimation

Crop area estimation performed by integration of the Area Frame

Sampling (AFS) technique and classification of satellite images is the GIS and
remote sensing application that has become most widely used today in many
countries.

The crop estimation process entails four independent components:

1. a ground survey of randomly sampled areas based on the AFS method;

2. a multi-temporal classification of satellite images covering the entire
area;
3. a combination of these two; and aggregation/dis-aggregation to
different administrative levels

Empirical-statistical models consider crop yield for many years and

effective factor on crop yield are found. Crop yield is related to effective
parameter by an empirical equation and the coefficient of each factor. Now by
these coefficients, crop yield is estimated

Crop growth models estimate crop yield as function of complex

interaction of different physiological processes with environment, estimate
biomass production potential by daily crop growth simulator. Running of these
methods has too many difficult such as: require too many ground factors, lake
of data in a correct form and much cost.

Approaches for crop area estimation

1. Boundary overlaying approach: Boundary is superimposed on the

satellite data and all pixels inside boundary are analysed. Suitable for
block/district
 2. Sample segment:

(a). Stratification based on various criteria viz. agro climatic

regions, historical crop production, crop condition as seen in satellite
imageries etc..

(b). Random selection of sample segments (10 x 10 km, 7.5 x 7.5

km or 5.5 x 5.5 km) with a sampling fraction of 10%. Suitable for large
area such as state or country.

Limitations to the nationwide crop acerage estimation

1. Small field size

2. Large diversity of crops sown in an area

3. Field to field crop diversity and management practices

4. Intercropping, mixed cropping

5. High cloud coverage during Kharif season

Methods of data integration have been identified: --Direct use of a driving

variable estimated from RS information --updating of state variable of model
(for ex: LAI) derived from RS data --calibration of model variables by using
satellite images

RS methods based on crop growth model

Monteith model uses biomass to estimate yield

(a). Biomass = APAR x e (b). Crop yield = APAR x e x HI

Where: ‘e’ is the LUE; ‘HI’ is the Harvest index APAR: absorbed photo
synthetically active radiation

VEGETATION INDICES-NDVI, NDWI, TCI, SAVI, PCA

NDWI

In remote sensing, ratio image or spectral rationing are enhancement

techniques in which a raster pixel from one spectral band is divided by the
corresponding value in another band. If looking to monitor vegetation in
drought affected areas, then it is advisable to use NDWI index proposed by Gao
utilizing NIR and SWIR. The SWIR reflectance in this index reflects changes in
both the vegetation water content and the spongy mesophyll structure in
vegetation canopies. The NIR reflectance is affected by leaf internal structure
and leaf dry matter content, but not by water content. The combination of the
NIR with the SWIR removes variations induced by leaf internal structure and
leaf dry matter content, improving the accuracy in retrieving the vegetation
water content It can be used for exploring water content at single leaf level as
well as canopy/satellite level.

NDWI = (G-NIR)/(G+NIR)
NDVI

The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) is the most widely

used as VI; it was proposed by Rouse Jr. et al, which can be expressed as

NDVI = (𝜌NIR − 𝜌𝑅) 𝜌NIR + 𝜌𝑅.

Since the index is calculated through a normalization procedure, the

range of NDVI values is between 0 and 1, having a sensitive response to green
vegetation even for low vegetation covered areas. This index is often used in
research related to regional and global vegetation assessments and was shown to
be related not only to canopy structure and LAI but also to canopy
photosynthesis. However, NDVI is sensitive to the effects of soil brightness,
soil colour, atmosphere, cloud and cloud shadow, and leaf canopy shadow and
requires remote sensing calibration.

SAVI:

Since NDVI and PVI have some deficiencies in describing the spectral
behavior of vegetation and soil background, Huete [50] established the Soil-
Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI), which can be expressed as follows:

SAVI = ((Band 4 – Band 3) / (Band 4 + Band 3 + 0.5)) * (1.5).

The above model of a soil vegetation system was established to improve

the sensitivity of NDVI to soil backgrounds, where 𝐿 is the soil conditioning
index, which improves the sensitivity of NDVI to soil background. The range of
𝐿 is from 0 to 1. In practical applications, the values of 𝐿 are determined
according to the specific environmental conditions. When the degree of
vegetation coverage is high, 𝐿 is close to 1, showing that the soil background
has no effect on the extraction of vegetation information.

PRINCIPAL COMPONENTS ANALYSIS (PCA)

A Tasseled Cap Transformation is performed by taking “linear

combinations” of the original image bands, which is similar in concept to the
multivariate data analysis technique called principal components analysis
(PCA). The Tasseled Cap can convert Landsat MSS, Landsat TM, and Landsat
7 ETM data. For Landsat MSS data, furthermore, the Tasseled Cap performs
orthogonal transformation on the original data, which converts it into a 4D
space. This conversion includes the Soil Brightness Index (SBI), degree of
Green Vegetation Index (GVI), and the degree of Yellow Vegetation Index
(YVI). It also includes Nonsuch Index (NSI) mainly for noise reduction. The
NSI is closely related to atmospheric effects.

For the Landsat 5 TM data, the Tasseled Cap results consist of three factors:

1. Brightness,
2. Greenness,
3. Third component related to soil.

Triangular Chlorophyll Index (TCI)

The Triangular Chlorophyll Index (TCI) is widely used in remote sensing

in the field of agricultural studies. A typical use case is e.g. the quantification of
vegetation in an area for the purpose of land-use classification. The TCI bases
on the absorption maximum and thus a minimum of reflectance of chlorophyll
at a wavelength of roughly 670 nm. The stronger the minimum of reflectance is
expressed in the spectrum under survey, the higher the TCI value.

The TCI is calculated according to the following formula

Here, R550nm, R670nm and R700nm denote the reflectance for the wavelengths 550nm,

670nm and 700nm, respectively. In order to deduce the reflectance values from
the recorded reflected intensities a proper white balance has to be provided.