SAR-based Monitoring of agricultural Areas (PhenoSAR-Demmin)

• Subject: Agriculture and phenological monitoring

• Study site: Demmin

• Funding: German Aerospace Center (DLR)

• Contact: Johannes Löw

The overarching aim of PhenoSAR is the derivation of phenological periods and points of time based on time series of earth observation data. Therefore, the project focuses on data provided by the Sentinel-1 Mission of the European Space Agency (ESA). During the last years a number of studies demonstrated the suitability of these time series for monitoring plant phenology. Especially, the sensitivity of radar towards changes in plant physiognomy is utilised in this project. Additionally, its comparatively low susceptibility of weather interference offers an advantage over optical systems in areas, which are often covered by clouds. Based on these finding PhenoSAR aims at developing a monitoring approach that detects singular phenological events as well as the transition of phenological phases, such as the transition from vegetative to reproductive stage of a plant life cycle. Hereby, the work is done in the context of ongoing endeavours at the CalVal-site of DEMMIN. Concerning this multilateral effort, a cooperation with the AgriSens Demmin 4.0 project has been secured. Furthermore, the connection of DEMMIN to JECAM initiative serves as a base for the envisioned spatial transfer of the monitoring framework. In addition, the project is closely tied to the data cube infrastructure of the Department of Remote Sensing to ensure transferability and scalability of the monitoring approach.