EFFICACITE DES IMAGES RADAR ET INFRAROUGE THERMIQUE, ET DE LA PHOTO COULEUR INFRAROUGE POUR L’INVENTAIRE DES CULTURES

Crops from 888 fields in a 300-km2 area between Rougemont and St-Hyacinthe were surveyed to compare the efficiency of radar (3–80 cm) and thermal infrared (8–14 μm) imagery with color infrared photography for crop identification. The color infrared photography and the thermal infrared imagery were taken by the Canadian Centre for Remote Sensing on 11 Aug. 1978, and the radar imagery by Intera on 19 Aug. The analysis of the thermal infrared imagery showed some correlations with the ground truth data, but the image could not be used in crop identification. Accordingly, observations from radar imagery could not serve in crop identification. However, similarities were observed between the radar and the thermal infrared imageries. The results showed once more that the color infrared photography as a remote sensing technique is the most useful to survey field crops.