ABSTRACT
Active microwave is a promising tool for monitoring vegetation and agricultural crops: the biomass, the stage of growth and deviations from regular plant development due to stress and ivestation may be inferred from radar data. In order to do so, two main steps must be considered: the changes of the measured radar signals must be correlated to the backscattering coefficients of the targets, the latter of which must be defined towards the biomass and structure of the vegetation. The definition of such relationship is,not an easy task due to the large number of physical parameters which characterize the target (type of crop and soil, humidity, structure, slope, etc.) and the sensor (wavelength, polarization, shooting angle). Moreover, these parameters are interrelated. Two basic models and some experiments, especially with reference to a successful but unexplained attempt of Nipah delineation with SIR-A imagery is presented after three main levels of vegetation observation are defined and the main physical parameters for the backscattering process are reviewed Although the few experiments conducted to date show that imaging radar has the potential to provide useful information with regard to vegetation no concrete information exists with regard to optimum angle of incidence, frequency or polarization configuration
Kata Kunci: radar remote - vegetatio
