TITLE:
Sentinel-1 Radar Data Assessment to Estimate Crop Water Stress
AUTHORS:
M. A. El-Shirbeny, K. Abutaleb
KEYWORDS:
Sentinel-1, Landsat 8, Backscattering (dB), Crop Water Stress Index (CWSI), Egypt
JOURNAL NAME:
World Journal of Engineering and Technology,
Vol.5 No.2B,
June
29,
2017
ABSTRACT: Water is an important component in agricultural production for both yield quantity and quality. Although all weather conditions are driving factors in the agricultural sector, the precipitation in rainfed agriculture is the most limiting weather parameter. Water deficit may occur continuously over the total growing period or during any particular growth stage of the crop. Optical remote sensing is very useful but, in cloudy days it becomes useless. Radar penetrates the cloud and collects information through the backscattering data. Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) was extracted from Landsat 8 satellite data and used to calculate Crop Coefficient (Kc). The FAO-Penman-Monteith equation was used to calculate reference evapotranspiration (ETo). NDVI and Land Surface Temperature (LST) were calculated from satellite data and integrated with air temperature measurements to estimate Crop Water Stress Index (CWSI). Then, both CWSI and potential crop evapotranspiration (ETc) were used to calculate actual evapotranspiration (ETa). Sentinel-1 radar data were calibrated using SNAP software. The relation between backscattering (dB) and CWSI was an inverse relationship and R2 was as high as 0.82.