Detection of Soybean Pod Formation Stage Using Sentinel-1 SAR Data

Soybean pod formation and its variability during the crop cycle has direct impact on the final crop yield. Observation using optical data could not be a better alternative for a crop like soybean, which is grown in summer monsoon in India in the Kharif season (crop grown mid June to end September)....

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Main Authors: Sakshi Jain, Unmesh Khati, Vineet Kumar, Rakesh Kumar Verma
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2025-01-01
Series:IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing
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Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10813559/
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author Sakshi Jain
Unmesh Khati
Vineet Kumar
Rakesh Kumar Verma
author_facet Sakshi Jain
Unmesh Khati
Vineet Kumar
Rakesh Kumar Verma
author_sort Sakshi Jain
collection DOAJ
description Soybean pod formation and its variability during the crop cycle has direct impact on the final crop yield. Observation using optical data could not be a better alternative for a crop like soybean, which is grown in summer monsoon in India in the Kharif season (crop grown mid June to end September). This study provides an effective method for soybean phenology monitoring and pod formation detection using Sentinel-1 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) based Dual-pol Radar Vegetation Index (DpRVI) and cross-pol ratio (VH/VV). We observed a trend followed by DpRVI and VH/VV. The mean DpRVI observed for 330 test sites soon after the sowing (DOY 181) was <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$0.28\pm 0.07$</tex-math></inline-formula>, increased to <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$0.38\pm 0.06$</tex-math></inline-formula> (DOY 229) then followed a downward trend (dip formation) with mean DpRVI <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$0.35\pm 0.08$</tex-math></inline-formula> (DOY 241) and finally reaches to its maximum <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$0.48\pm 0.09$</tex-math></inline-formula> just before the harvest (DOY 265). Previous five year data over the same fields showed same pattern of growth and dip, with more accuracy for those years having enough dataset. DpRVI and cross-pol ratio (VH/VV) observed as a better indicator of soybean growth compared to VH and VV polarization backscatter. This study also observed impact of early and delayed rainfall over previous five years on the pod formation. This study finds a pattern of first derivative of phenological profile and identifies that the second minima of first derivative of phenology profile represent the date of pod formation stage for soybean growth.
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spelling doaj-art-64fa16f4cc8243a284b7b3a32c2858532025-01-30T00:00:19ZengIEEEIEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing1939-14042151-15352025-01-01184020403110.1109/JSTARS.2024.352195910813559Detection of Soybean Pod Formation Stage Using Sentinel-1 SAR DataSakshi Jain0https://orcid.org/0009-0006-0189-0297Unmesh Khati1https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9022-9199Vineet Kumar2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0469-3815Rakesh Kumar Verma3Department of Astronomy, Astrophysics and Space Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Indore, Indore, IndiaDepartment of Astronomy, Astrophysics and Space Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Indore, Indore, IndiaCenter for Geoinformatics, Jamsetji Tata School of Disaster Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, IndiaIndian Council of Agricultural Research--Indian Institute of Soybean Research, Indore, IndiaSoybean pod formation and its variability during the crop cycle has direct impact on the final crop yield. Observation using optical data could not be a better alternative for a crop like soybean, which is grown in summer monsoon in India in the Kharif season (crop grown mid June to end September). This study provides an effective method for soybean phenology monitoring and pod formation detection using Sentinel-1 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) based Dual-pol Radar Vegetation Index (DpRVI) and cross-pol ratio (VH/VV). We observed a trend followed by DpRVI and VH/VV. The mean DpRVI observed for 330 test sites soon after the sowing (DOY 181) was <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$0.28\pm 0.07$</tex-math></inline-formula>, increased to <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$0.38\pm 0.06$</tex-math></inline-formula> (DOY 229) then followed a downward trend (dip formation) with mean DpRVI <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$0.35\pm 0.08$</tex-math></inline-formula> (DOY 241) and finally reaches to its maximum <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$0.48\pm 0.09$</tex-math></inline-formula> just before the harvest (DOY 265). Previous five year data over the same fields showed same pattern of growth and dip, with more accuracy for those years having enough dataset. DpRVI and cross-pol ratio (VH/VV) observed as a better indicator of soybean growth compared to VH and VV polarization backscatter. This study also observed impact of early and delayed rainfall over previous five years on the pod formation. This study finds a pattern of first derivative of phenological profile and identifies that the second minima of first derivative of phenology profile represent the date of pod formation stage for soybean growth.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10813559/DpRVIgrowing degree days (GDD)Indorephenologysynthetic aperture radar (SAR)Sentinel-1
spellingShingle Sakshi Jain
Unmesh Khati
Vineet Kumar
Rakesh Kumar Verma
Detection of Soybean Pod Formation Stage Using Sentinel-1 SAR Data
IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing
DpRVI
growing degree days (GDD)
Indore
phenology
synthetic aperture radar (SAR)
Sentinel-1
title Detection of Soybean Pod Formation Stage Using Sentinel-1 SAR Data
title_full Detection of Soybean Pod Formation Stage Using Sentinel-1 SAR Data
title_fullStr Detection of Soybean Pod Formation Stage Using Sentinel-1 SAR Data
title_full_unstemmed Detection of Soybean Pod Formation Stage Using Sentinel-1 SAR Data
title_short Detection of Soybean Pod Formation Stage Using Sentinel-1 SAR Data
title_sort detection of soybean pod formation stage using sentinel 1 sar data
topic DpRVI
growing degree days (GDD)
Indore
phenology
synthetic aperture radar (SAR)
Sentinel-1
url https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10813559/
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AT unmeshkhati detectionofsoybeanpodformationstageusingsentinel1sardata
AT vineetkumar detectionofsoybeanpodformationstageusingsentinel1sardata
AT rakeshkumarverma detectionofsoybeanpodformationstageusingsentinel1sardata