Defining the Sensitivity of Multi-frequency and Multi-polarized Radar Backscatter to Post-Harvest Crop Residue
Source: H. McNairn, C. Duguay, J. Boisvert, E. Huffman and B. Brisco,
Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing, Vol. 27, No. 3.

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Crop Tillage
Tilling the soil in the fall affects the surface soil properties and is a determining factor in the susceptibility of the topsoil to erosion. Therefore farmers are encouraged to reduce the number of tillage passes and to use conservation tillage implements. Adoption of conservation tillage also means that significant amounts of post-harvest crop residue are left on the field. On fields where conservation management is practiced, the effects of wind and overland water runoff are minimized and the erosion of topsoil is significantly reduced.

Models that estimate the soil erosion rates (i.e. Universal Soil Loss Equation, Wind Erosion Equation) require information about post-harvest management practices. Gathering tillage and crop residue information at a regional or even local scale is an enormous challenge because of the acres involved and the changing condition of the fields between harvest and seeding.

Remote sensing - both optical and radar have demonstrated success for mapping crop residue levels. The following table suggests the preferred SAR configurations (C-band) for maximizing information content. The paper examined corn and barley crop residues at the Experimental Farm in Ottawa using Scatterometer data.