The relationship between the leaf area index (LAI) of rice and the C‐band SAR vertical/horizontal (VV/HH) polarization ratio

We investigated the relationship between the leaf area index (LAI) of rice and the ENVISAT Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) vertical/horizontal (VV/HH) polarization ratio. Four alternating polarization ASAR images of swaths IS4 and IS5 over rice fields were used in the study. The VV/HH polarization ratio correlates well with the field‐measured LAI and an empirical relationship was established to estimate the LAI of rice using the VV/HH polarization ratio. A theoretical radiative transfer model was adopted to analyse the relationship. The error of the estimated LAI was 0.17 for the test site and a better correlation was found when LAI was less than 3.5. The results suggest that ASAR alternating polarization data can be used to estimate the LAI of rice for wide‐area monitoring of rice growth.

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