COMPARING INSAR METHODOLOGIES FOR THE RETRIEVAL OF PADDY RICE HEIGHT WITH TANDEM-X DATA

This paper compares single-pol SAR interferometric and polarimetric SAR interferometric strategies for the estimation of agricultural crop parameters using bistatic TanDEM-X data. An experiment is conducted with data acquired over rice fields in Spain during the Science Phase of this mission. Results show that Po1InSAR-based approach and a method based on the coherence amplitude provide then most accurate height estimates. Results derived from single-pol approaches depend on the varying signal penetration of HH and VV channels at different growth phases. Inversion schemes based on the interferometric phase and the complex coherence are also analyzed and provide good results in some cases.