A processing and software system for rice crop inventory using multi-date RADARSAT ScanSAR data

An operational crop survey program requires standardised procedures and software packages to meet the specified targets of timeliness and accuracy of estimates. Currently, the focus is to include Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data in such a program, as these data are available from a number of sensors. A procedure has been developed to use multi-date SAR data for rice crop inventory. The steps were packaged together for ease-of-use and with minimal user interaction. The package, SARCROPS, is built around the EASI/PACE software. It is, at present, tuned for RADARSAT ScanSAR data. The package was used during the 1998-1999 and 1999-2000 seasons to estimate the rice area at state level in India with the participation of a number of interdisciplinary users. Around 45 and 89 scenes of ScanSAR data were used during these two seasons, respectively. This paper reports the details of the SARCROPS processing chain. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.