An Improved Radiative Transfer Model for Polarimetric Backscattering from Agricultural Fields at C- and X-Bands

The first-order vector radiative transfer model (FVRTM) is modified mainly by examining the effects of leaf curvature of vegetation canopies, the higher-order multiple scattering among vegetation scattering particles, and the underlying-surface roughness for forward reflection on radar backscattering from farming fields at C- and X-bands. At first, we collected the backscattering coefficients measured by scatterometers and space-borne synthetic aperture radar (SAR), field-measured ground-truth data sets, and theoretical scattering models for radar backscattering from vegetation fields at microwaves. Then, these effects on the RTM were examined using the database at the C- and X-bands. Finally, an improved RTM was obtained by adjusting its parameters, mainly related with the leaf curvature, the higherorder multiple scattering, and the underlying-surface small-roughness characteristics, and its accuracy was verified by comparisons between the improved RTM and measurement data sets.

Automated summary

The first-order vector radiative transfer model (FVRTM) was modified to examine the effects of leaf curvature, higher-order multiple scattering, and underlying-surface roughness on radar backscattering from farming fields. The improved model was obtained by adjusting parameters related to these factors and its accuracy was verified through comparisons with measurement data sets.