Discrete scatter model for microwave radar and radiometer response to corn: comparison of theory and data

Abstract

As part of the Multisensor Aircraft Campaign, MACHYDRO, two microwave sensors, NASA's Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (AIRSAR) and Pushbroom Microwave Radiometer (PBMR) collected data over the same corn fields during the summer of 1990. During these flights, measurements were made on the ground of soil moisture and plant parameters. In this paper the measured canopy and soil parameters are used in a discrete scatter model to predict the response of both sensors (radar and radiometer). A distorted Born approximation is used to compute the scattering coefficient for the corn canopy. The backscatter coefficient gives the radar response and the radiometer response is obtained by integrating the bistatic coefficient over all scattering angles above ground. The objective of this analysis is to test the model and, in particular, to determine how well a single set of plant parameters and single model can yield agreement with both the radar and radiometer measurements. The model values are in reasonably good agreement with the measurements at horizontal polarization and reflect observed changes in soil moisture.