Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) research over the last two decades has confirmed that microwaves are sensitive to both soils and crop characteristics. Results using multi-temporal RADARSAT-1 imagery have confirmed that C-HH backscatter can detect differences in crop type, crop growth stage and crop indicators like crop height, biomass and leaf area index. Active microwave systems have a significant advantage over optical systems, particularly for crop monitoring, since SAR acquisitions are not impeded by cloud cover. The multi-beam modes associated with RADARSAT-1 also provide significant flexibility related to the timing, spatial resolution and incidence angle of the acquired imagery. Building on the success of RADARSAT-1, the announcement of the launch of RADARSAT-2 opens up new opportunities for agriculture and land cover mapping. The multipolarized configuration of RADARSAT-2 is likely to provide more information related to crop structure and crop condition. In preparation for the availability of RADARSAT-2 data, the Canada Centre of Remote Sensing (CCRS) has been gathering airborne multi-polarized imagery to assess the added information content of this multi-dimensional data. CCRS flew the airborne CV-580 SAR over two sites in Ontario during the 1998 and 1999 field seasons. These data are being used to address the sensitivity of multi-polarized SAR data to characteristics of corn, wheat and soybean crops. This paper provides preliminary results of this analysis.