Initial Analysis on the Sensitivity of BIOMASS P-band Quad-Pol SAR Images to Agricultural Crops

Citation: Lopez-Sanchez, J. M., Cazcarra-Bes, V., Mestre-Quereda, A., Mosquera, C., & van der Sande, C. (2026, June 17). Initial Analysis on the Sensitivity of BIOMASS P-band Quad-Pol SAR Images to Agricultural Crops. Proceedings of the 16th European Conference on Synthetic Aperture Radar (EUSAR2026). European Conference on Synthetic Aperture Radar (EUSAR), Baden-Baden (Germany). https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20733721

Abstract: P-band quad-pol images acquired by the recently launched BIOMASS mission over a region in Colombia (mostly dedicated to sugarcane cultivation) has been used to check the potential sensitivity of such data to the crop status and growth. The analysis of these images demonstrates certain relationship between the radar response (in terms of scattering mechanisms) and the stage in the growing season. Typical polarimetric features, such as the backscattering coefficient at different channels, the correlation and the ratio between the co-polar channels, and a radar vegetation index, have been computed to interpret the response of sugarcane at P-band. Results suggest that P-band quad-pol data from the BIOMASS mission is well suited for monitoring the growth of this crop type.