Sensitivity Analysis of Crop Biophysical Parameters Using Multi-Temporal Dual–Polarization Sentinel -1 C-Band SAR Data

Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data have been proven useful for agricultural monitoring and crop discrimination. The current study focused on sensitivity analysis of cotton and groundnut crop biophysical parameters and polarimetric parameters evaluated from dual polarized (VV-VH) Sentinel-1 SAR temporal datasets. Simple linear and logarithmic regression with Leaf Area Index (LAI) and plant height respectively gives reasonable correlation with Radar Vegetation Index (RVI) and Entropy (H), Anisotropy (A) and Alpha (α) decomposition. RVI is well correlated with LAI and plant height (R
²
= 0.83) for both the crops. For H-A-α decomposition, entropy has maximum correlation with plant height (R
²
=0.43) for cotton and LAI (R
²
= 0.49) for groundnut. Alpha angle values are observed to be similar for both the crops which make it difficult to discriminate them in H- α plane. Dual-pol Sentinel-1 SAR can be potentially utilized for evaluating crop biophysical parameters in its temporal variation.