Preparing ENVISAT campaign: radar and ground measurements and analysis on wheat fields over the Matera site

The objective of this study is to investigate the relationship between fresh wheat crop biomass as well as under canopy soil moisture content and radar backscatter at C-band. It is generally accepted that the new capabilities of ASAR-ENVISAT data (multipolarization and angular information) should be particularly useful for retrieving crop biomass and soil moisture content from remote sensed radar data. In this framework, this paper describes an experimental work devoted to the collection of ground and radar measurements on four wheat fields over the Matera site (Italy) during the 200 1 growing season. From March to June 2001, six ERS-2 overpasses of the site have been acquired. In addition, eight C-band scatterometric acquisitions, at HH and W polarisation, for an incidence angle ranging between 23" and 60°, have been achieved. In coincidence with ERS-2 and scatterometric acquisitions, ground data in terms of soil moisture, fresh wheat biomass and canopy strutture have been coliected. A data analysis is presented and the implication for the retrieval of agricultural parameters is discussed.