Fine classification and phenological analysis of rice paddy based on multi-temporal general compact polarimetric SAR...

Fine classification and phenological information of rice paddy are of great significance for precision agricultural management. General compact polarimetric (CP) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) offers the advantage of providing rich polarimetric information, making it an important means of monitoring rice growth. Therefore, in response to the current challenges of difficulty in rice type classification and the small differences in phenological polarimetric characteristics, a novel strategy for fine classification and phenological analysis of rice paddy is proposed. This strategy thoroughly explores the polarimetric information of general CP SAR data and the target scattering characterization capabilities under different imaging modes. Firstly, the general CP SAR data is formalized using the standard CP descriptors, followed by the extraction of general CP features through the Δα /α target decomposition method. optimal CP features are generated to achieve fine classification of rice paddy. Finally, 6 phenological stages of rice are analyzed based on the general CP features. The experiment results of rice classification show that the classification accuracy based on this strategy exceeds 90%, with a Kappa coefficient above 0.88. The highest classification accuracies were observed for transplanting hybrid rice paddy (T-H) and direct-sown japonica rice paddy (D-J), at 80.9% and 89.9%, respectively. The phenological evolution rule of the two rice types indicate that from early June (seedling stage) to late July (elongation stage), the CP feature variation trends of T-H and D-J are generally consistent. However, from October (mature stage) to November (harvest stage), the variation trends of the CP features for T-H and D-J are significantly different. The study found that from the booting-heading stage to the harvest stage, the linear π/4 mode outperforms circular and elliptical polarimetric modes in distinguishing different types of rice. Throughout the entire phenological period of rice growth, CP SAR of linear π/4 mode is surpasses that of other linear modes in discriminating different type of rice. The proposed strategy enables high-precision fine classification rice paddy, and the extracted general CP α parameter effectively reflects the phenological change trends in rice growth.