ERS-1 and JERS-1 SAR data analysis for soil moisture and land cover studies

ERS-1 and JERS-1 SAR data acquired with one day difference were compared to each other to study the effect of frequency and incidence angle on soil moisture and various land cover features. Optical data from IRS-1 satellite were also used for comparison with microwave data. Temporal ERS-1 SAR data acquired in three months (3 scenes) were also included in the analysis. The response of ERS-1 SAR data for soil moisture is better than that of JERS-1 SAR data. Effect of roughness and vegetation on soil moisture was observed in both the SAR data sets. The temporal changes in soil moisture using three ERS-1 SAR scenes were clearly seen. Classification accuracy of various land cover features are very poor in microwave data as compared to optical data.