Crop Phenology Assessment using Scatterometer OSCAT data

Microwave remote sensing has great potential in agricultural application due to its unique target interaction, all-weather imaging capability as optical observations are often hampered by cloudy conditions. Rice and Wheat is the main food crop across the India and grown in Kharif and Ravi seasons. These crops have impact on state economy. Information on crop phenology is essential for yield estimation and crop management. The high temporal resolution of super-resolved OSCAT data is exploited for Rice and Wheat crop phenology in few states of India namely Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Orissa. The scatterometers are mainly designed for ocean applications but different land features can also be differentiated by 2.225 Km product at state level, if the feature extends more than the resolution of data. In this study, temporal two days composite, fine resolution data for year 2013 over India have been used along with the Agro-metrological parameters i.e. NDVI, Temperature & Rainfall. Rice crop signature is observed to have dual peak characteristic.