Potential of Sentinel-1 Radar Data for the Assessment of Soil and Cereal Cover Parameters

Sentinel-1 radar data shows significant potential for estimating soil characteristics and cereal vegetation parameters, including soil roughness, water content, leaf area index (LAI), and vegetation height (H). The study, conducted over the Kairouan Plain in Tunisia from 2015 to 2017, found that Sentinel-1 measurements are highly sensitive to variations in soil moisture, particularly under low vegetation cover conditions, with stronger sensitivity observed in vertical polarization (VV) compared to cross-polarization (VH). Additionally, the radar signal strength decreases with increasing LAI and H in VV polarization, while no such sensitivity is detected in VH polarization due to volume scattering effects. The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) from Landsat images also demonstrated a strong correlation with in situ LAI measurements.

Bousbih, S., Zribi, M., Lili-Chabaane, Z., Baghdadi, N., El Hajj, M., Gao, Q., & Mougenot, B. (2017). Potential of Sentinel-1 Radar Data for the Assessment of Soil and Cereal Cover Parameters. Sensors, 17(11), 2617. https://doi.org/10.3390/s17112617