Measurement of scattering in X, C and L bands on wet and inundated soil surface for the monitoring of paddy fields using SAR data

Laboratory experiments were conducted to measure microwave scattering on specimens to simulate paddy fields for the purpose of developing microwave scattering model of paddy fields. In the experiment, the specimens were produced into fiber reinforced plastic (FRP) tube with 70 x 60 x 60 cm volume. The specimens contained soils, water layer and paddy. X-band antennas measured the backscatter from the specimens, and the fully polarimetric data were decomposed into four components by applying the methodology proposed by Yamaguchi et al. [1]. The results show that the scattering of paddy to X-band microwave is composed of volume scattering mainly. However, it was also shown that the effects reflected from the edge of the FRP tube cannot be neglected. Therefore, further experiment will be necessary to examine the scattering of paddy, in which the tube should be replaced with another case material such as polystyrene case.