SPECIAL SECTION: RADAR IMAGING SATELLITE-1
Initial results using RISAT-1 C-band SAR data
Manab Chakraborty1,*, Sushma Panigrahy2, A. S. Rajawat1, Raj Kumar1,
T. V. R. Murthy1, Dipanwita Haldar1, Abhisek Chakraborty1, Tanumi Kumar1,
Sneha Rode1, Hrishikesh Kumar1, Manik Mahapatra1 and Sanchayita Kundu1
1
Space Applications Centre, Indian Space Research Organisation, Ahmedabad 380 015, India
2
Formerly with Space Applications Centre, Indian Space Research Organisation, Ahmedabad 380 015, India
Imaging radars provide information that is funda-
mentally different from sensors that operate in the
visible and infrared portions of the electromagnetic
spectrum. The Indian Space Research Organisation
(ISRO) has launched a multi-mode, multi-polarization
Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) on-board Radar Im-
aging SATellite-1 (RISAT-1) on 26 April 2012. Vari-
ous data products from RISAT-1 SAR are now going
through calibrationvalidation (calval) phase and
soon will be available for the global users for opera-
tional and research purposes. In this regard, algo-
rithms are being developed to retrieve various
parameters in diverse application areas. This article
deals with the in-house algorithm development for
studying different resources using initial available
data of RISAT-1.
Keywords: Mangrove ecosystem, ocean surface wind,
rice acreage, RISAT-1, ship detection, Synthetic Aperture
Radar, wave spectra.
Introduction
RICE, a major staple food crop in India, is grown mostly
during the kharif season. Extensive cloud coverage hin-
ders optical sensors to sense the crop growth, particularly
during monsoon season. Thus SAR data remain the only
viable option. Previous studies have demonstrated that
the signature of rice is unique and dynamic when moni-
tored using SAR data due to the presence of water back-
ground in most parts of the country throughout majority
of its growth phase. Backscatter shows a steady increase
with time since transplanting until the heading stage and
thereafter it maintains a constant value1. Results using
multi-temporal ERS/RADARSAT imagery have con-
firmed that C-HH backscatter can detect differences in
crop type, crop growth stage and crop indicators. Cross-
polarized radar returns (HV or VH) result from multiple
reflections within the vegetation volume and thus can add
an extra dimension to the existing single polarization
mode. RISAT-1, the countrys first indigenously devel-
oped SAR satellite, has come up with huge potential to
monitor rice acreage. In the present study rice crop iden-
*For correspondence. (e-mail: manab@sac.isro.gov.in)
490
tification and classification was attempted using RISAT-1
C-band two-date data with central incidence angle 37,
HH/HV polarization. During initiation of the national
kharif rice monitoring and acreage estimation project,
rice signature has been developed from multi-temporal
SAR dataset by Panigrahy et al.2. The model is suitably
used to study the rice crop of recently launched RISAT-1.
The present study is an attempt to monitor the rice-
growing areas with the initial datasets (MRS, Medium
Resolution SAR) from this satellite, which will be the
SAR workhorse in near future.
Various oceanographic applications have shown the
potentiality of SAR images during the past three decades
with the successful launch of a range of spaceborne SARs
(SEASAT in 1978, ERS-1 in 1995, ERS-2 in 1995,
RADARSAT-1 in 1995, ENVironmental SATellite
(ENVISAT) in 2002, etc.). The ocean features commonly
seen on SAR imagery include surface waves, mesoscale
ocean circulation structures such as eddies and currents,
oil slicks, ships and wakes, internal waves and coastal
bathymetry. The SAR is so sensitive to the interaction of
wind with the ocean surface that, in addition to wind
speed, patterns and structures within the atmospheric
boundary layer produce identifiable surface imprints3. An
algorithm has been developed for the retrieval of very
high resolution ocean surface winds, ocean wave spectra
as well as detection of coastal and deep sea ships using
RISAT-1 SAR data.
Sensitivity of radar to water, due to its high dielectric
constant, is extremely valuable to the remote sensing of
wetlands. It is not only sensitive to soil moisture, but can
also differentiate between moist soil and standing water4.
High sensitivity to standing water and soil moisture
makes radar an efficient tool for determining hydro pat-
tern5,6. SAR technology with improved spatial resolution
allows regional wetland mapping. In a study by Baghdadi
et al.7, it was suggested that C-band data are useful in
wetland mapping and monitoring. Studies conducted with
Shuttle Imaging Radar (SIR-C) and Japanese Earth
Resources Satellite (JERS)-1 LHH band imagery con-
firmed this finding8,9. Slatton10 had shown that polarimet-
ric multiband SAR has potential for mapping the major
sub-environments associated with coastal herbaceous
wetlands. Discrimination of different types of marshes,
swamp thickets and swamp forests is also possible with
CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 104, NO. 4, 25 FEBRUARY 2013
 SPECIAL SECTION: RADAR IMAGING SATELLITE-1
radar imagery due to varying stem height and density11.
The use of multi-temporal radar data combined via an
intensity, hue and saturation (IHS) transformation has
also been found to improve wetland mapping12. The
opportunity to explore the potential of radar data will
improve as many SAR satellites are currently being
launched or will soon be launched. These extra satellites
will not only increase the amount of data available for
analysis, but will also increase collection frequency and
the variety of polarizations and frequencies available13.
Forest inventory and monitoring have been routinely
done by satellite remote sensing techniques. While opti-
cal remote sensing is widely used for this purpose, it is
often affected by sun angle and atmospheric parameters
(e.g. clouds, haze and aerosols) and hinders quantitative
modelling. In this context, the active radar remote sens-
ing, having particular significance for all-weather, day
night imaging capability and responsiveness to moisture
content and structural attributes of vegetation, holds
promise for quantitative analysis in studies on forestry.
One of the unique potentials demonstrated by space-
borne radar images is their penetration capability through
shallow sand cover in arid regions and detecting subsur-
face geological and archaeological features, in particular
buried river channels and imprints of archaeological sites
occurring in the adjoining areas. Images acquired in
northeastern Sahara in 1981 during the first NASA Shut-
tle Image Radar mission (SIR-A) demonstrated the capa-
bility of the L-band (wavelength 24.5 cm) to penetrate
12 m of loose sand and return information about geo-
logic and geomorphologic features covered by sand14,15.
Subsequently, radar images in L-band by Seasat, SIR-A
and SIR-B acquired in the Baden-Jaran Desert of China16,
in Saudi Arabia17,18 and in the Mojave Desert of Califor-
nia19,20 confirmed the benefit of radar images to study
bedrock features beneath few metres of loose sand.
Analysis of Seasat, SIR-A and SIR-B images revealed
igneous features (dykes) buried as much as 2 m beneath
alluvium in the Mojave Desert19. The radar energy has
penetrated through the shallow sand cover and subsurface
igneous dykes have acted as subsurface rough surfaces
and provided high backscatter to be detected by the radar
sensor. Ancient drainage pattern cut in the bedrock is not
visible in the optical images because of the sand cover.
The buried palaeodrainage network appears as dark fea-
tures due to smoother channel fillings and is identified
due to contrasting brightness of hard substrate of the
adjoining region14,15,2124.
Kharif rice acreage using two-date RISAT-1 data
Dataset and study area
RISAT-1 C-band (5.35 GHz) dual-polarization (HH, HV)
MRS L2 data (18 m pixel spacing and 37 incidence angle)
CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 104, NO. 4, 25 FEBRUARY 2013
are used for estimating kharif rice acreage estimation.
Data have been collected for two different dates suffi-
ciently spaced in phenology to identify rice fields. Spacing
between the data is minimum of 12 days for the Odisha
coastal area and maximum 50 days for Allahabad. Detailed
information about the dataset used is given in Table 1.
Rice is predominantly grown in the entire Indo-
Gangetic plain during monsoon season. Uttar Pradesh,
Bihar, Odisha and West Bengal are considered as the rice
bowl of the country. Two-date scenes having overlap in
major rice-growing regions of these states are selected as
the test area (Figure 1).
Methodology
Processing of the RISAT-1 data was carried out using
PCI Geomatica (ver. 9.0) software. L2 product is avail-
able in .tiff format. HH and HV images are imported to
native raster format of PCI Geomatica (.pix) and trans-
ferred to a single file as two separate channels. Reprojec-
tion (if needed) is done and then the image is filtered by
enhanced Lee adaptive filter with kernel size 5 5, as
established by standard procedures1. Most of the scenes
had abrupt brightness variations in the near and far range
side and banding at equal interval along the track due to
mosaicing of data of beams used to form the MRS data.
These unwanted patterns were removed by marking a
transect across the image and adjusting the brightness by
plotting the variations in brightness across the pixels. The
coefficient and central pixel values are used to correct
this pattern. Calibration for HH and HV polarization am-
plitude image were carried out using the calibration con-
stant in product.xml as:
Value in dB (in 32-bit real channel)
= 20 log10 (DN) calibration constant.
The two-date images were co-registered by fitting manual
GCPs with about 25 well-distributed points throughout
the image scene. A second-order polynomial model was
fitted to register the second date image with respect to the
first date image.
On this two-date HHHV image, the vectors in the
form of sample-segment or district boundary were over-
laid. Classification of the rice area is performed inside
these segments to derive the crop proportion and finally
district rice acreage. Addition of HV channel takes care
of the fallow and river border region otherwise classified
as rice using two-date HH data.
Observation
Rice, being a semi-aquatic crop, generates unique tempo-
ral backscatter profile unlike other crops. During trans-
plantation, backscatter is quite low due to puddled fields
in standing water condition which reflects more energy in
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Table 1. Details of RISAT-1 scenes used for the study

Incidence Temporal Pixel

Area Date Polarization angle interval (days) spacing

Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh 17 July 2012 HH 35.09 50 18 18

5 September 2012 HV 36.58

Baleswar, Odisha 2 August 2012 HH 35.04 12 18 18

14 August 2012 HV 37.49

Aurangabad, Bihar 18 July 2012 HH 34.30 38 18 18

26 August 2012 HV 36.56

Figure 1. Area overlapped by two-date RISAT-1 scenes.

Figure 2. Two-date RISAT image covering a part of rice-growing

forward direction and minimal in the backscattering
direction. Only HH data-based assessment for rice field
also includes waterbodies and moist fallow lands as
commission error. The overestimated area can be removed
by introducing HV data with previous set. In many cases,
it has been noticed that signature generated from HH
backscattered coefficient (in dB) of rice fields has been
mixed with waterbody or moist fallow land in the border-
ing fields, whereas HV backscattering for these features
differs. HHHV difference is higher for cropped fields
compared to fallow land or waterbodies. Two-date data-
set in Allahabad, Aurangabad and Odisha areas can suc-
cessfully identify early and late transplanted rice crop
with combination of HH and HV data.
In two-date FCC, early transplanted rice fields appear
as bright green patches. During first-date data acquisition,
as transplantation had taken place, rice fields had suffi-
ciently low amount of backscattering which had subse-
quently increased in second-date acquisition. For late rice
transplanted fields, there is a sudden dip in backscattered
coefficient in the second date. So, energy available in
green and blue channel is less and it appears as bright red
patches in the images (Figure 2).
area of Aurangabad district, Bihar. a, Overview of two-date overlapped
area in FCC (R: First date HH, G: Second date HH, B: Second date
HV). b, Rice sample segments. c, Classified rice as early (yellow) and
late (magenta) transplanted.
Sample segments are used to find the crop proportion
of the study region. Rice is classified within the agricul-
tural sample segments. Crop proportion is calculated by
taking ratio of total number of pixels and total number of
pixels classified as rice. Crop acreage is estimated by
multiplying this value with total population of each dis-
trict. The procedure can be summarized as follows.
Crop proportion = Pixel classified as rice within
sample segments/Total number of pixels within
sample segments.
Acreage = Crop proportion N Segment area in
suitable units.
where N is the total population of agricultural segments.
Crop proportion for early transplanted rice in Auran-
gabad area is recorded as 0.094. On the other hand, it is

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 SPECIAL SECTION: RADAR IMAGING SATELLITE-1
0.30 for late transplanted rice. Misclassification due to
moist soil and waterbodies in two-date single polarization
data has been solved by adding HV polarization in both
dates. HV is more sensitive to above-ground volume and
hence backscattering differs. Due to late onset of mon-
soon, most of the area has transplanted rice lately, which
clearly showed up in the second-date data.
Dataset for coastal Odisha comprises one ascending
pass and another descending with 10 days temporal inter-
val. Though the interval is too small to identify early and
late transplanted rice, the SAR data successfully picked
up rice fields because majority of transplanting opera-
tions coincided with these dates. Crop ratio for this area
is estimated as 0.10 and 0.31 for early and late trans-
planted rice respectively. The FCC composed by two-date
HH polarization shows a similar picture of the study area
(Figure 4).
In the Allahabad scene (Figure 3), analysis shows that
most of the rice-growing areas have early transplanted
rice, only few fields have sown it late. Crop proportion of
early transplanted rice is estimated as 0.30 and for late
transplanted rice it is 0.08. Two-date HH dataset was also
analysed and results have been compared. Overestimation
of late transplanted rice is clearly identified, which esti-
mated crop ratio of late transplanted rice as 0.15. The
large data gap (50 days) between the two dates rendered
some difficulty in picking up the late transplanted paddy
as it was missed in the 10 August scene. The fully-grown
crop was picked up in the third date, but critical trans-
plantation phase for some parts was missed.
Figure 3. a, classified rice sample segment in Allahabad region. b,
classified rice in coastal Odisha.
Figure 4. Comparison between two-date HH FCC of RISAT-1 and
Radarsat-2.
CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 104, NO. 4, 25 FEBRUARY 2013
The present study is a preliminary attempt to utilize the
RISAT-1 data for kharif rice monitoring, which was the
largest national project using microwave data from a for-
eign satellites till the launch of RISAT-1. The feasibility
of RISAT-1 data for monitoring the national rice acreage
has been demonstrated in this study. Suitable datasets
from RISAT-1 would improve classification of the pre-
sent study and also boost the monitoring of other kharif
crops in future. The low data cost would be a boon for the
microwave remote sensing community globally in all
arenas of application.
Oceanographic applications of RISAT-1 SAR
Data
It is well known that for oceanographic applications wide
swath (scanSAR)-mode data are best suitable. Hence
in-house development of all the retrieval algorithms has
been carried out using Wide Swath Medium resolution
(Wide Swath Mode, WSM) data from Advanced SAR
(ASAR) on-board ENVISAT. The algorithms are tested
on Fine Resolution (FRS) and Medium Resolution
(MRS)-mode data from RISAT-1 SAR (due to non-
availability of wide swath data from RISAT-1 while pre-
paring this manuscript). Brief descriptions of the various
data used in this study are given below.
(1) ENVISATASAR: ENVISAT was launched by the
European Space Agency (ESA) on 1 March 2002 in a
Sun-synchronous orbit of altitude 799.8 km with inclina-
tion 98.550, as a successor to ERS-1 and ERS-2. The or-
bital period of ENVISAT is 100.59 min with a repeat
cycle of 35 days and varying imaging frequency from
1 to 3 days. ASAR is one of the ten payloads carried by
ENVISAT. ASAR uses in-phase array with an incidence
angle range of 1545 and is able to operate in five dif-
ferent polarization modes (VV, HH, VV/HH, HV/HH,
VH/VV) in C-band (5.3 GHz, 5.6 cm). Among the five
operating modes of ASAR (Image Mode, Alternating
Polarization, WSM, Wave Mode and Global Monitoring),
only the WSM, using the scanSAR technique, offers a
wide enough swath (around 400 km) with a spatial reso-
lution adapted to accurate regional monitoring (with a
pixel spacing of 75 m). The incidence angle in each
image ranges from 17 to 42.
(2) RISAT-1 SAR: RISAT-1 was launched on 26 April
2012 by ISRO in a Sun-synchronous dawndusk orbit of
altitude 536 km with inclination of 97.55 and orbital
period of 95.5 min. RISAT-1 carries a C-band (5.35 GHz)
SAR as the sole payload. The RISAT-1 SAR is capable
of imaging the Earths surface in different modes, e.g.
HRS (spotlight scanning, resolution less than 2 m), FRS-
1 (Stripmap scanning, resolution 3 m), FRS-2 (Stripmap
Scanning, resolution 6 m, quad-pol capability), MRS
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(scanSAR scanning, resolution 25 m) and CRS (scanSAR
scanning, resolution 50 m) with variable swath widths
ranging from 30 to 240 km.
Methodology
imagery, a single SAR image frame is extracted. In case
of RISAT-1 FRS-1 mode, such a frame is comprised of
512 512 image pixels. Since each pixel represents a
3 m 3 m area, the image frame corresponds to 1.5 km

SAR achieves its azimuth resolution by coherent process-

ing of radar returns. Due to this coherent processing,
noises (speckles) appear on the SAR images. Before the
processing of SAR images for any retrieval purposes,
such speckles have to be removed. In our methodology,
speckle removal is performed using a 5 5 gamma MAP
filter. In case of coastal SAR images, the land portions of
the images are to be masked so as to eliminate land con-
tamination in the resultant product. We do this using
30 arcsec global topography (GTOPO30) data available
from the US Geological Survey (USGS). At this end the
SAR image is ready for retrieval of oceanographic
parameters.

Retrieval of ocean surface winds: Over the oceans, the

roughness explicitly depends on the winds blowing over
the surface. Greater the wind speed, the higher is the sur-
face roughness and so is Normalized Radar Cross Section
(NRCS)25. The variation in surface roughness causes
variation in backscattered power and hence in SAR image
intensity, which is directly proportional to the NRCS for
a calibrated SAR image26. Both the SAR images from
ENVISAT and RISAT-1 are calibrated using the method
proposed by Rosich and Meadows27 considering the
effect of SAR digital counts, external calibration constant
and local incidence angles. The calibrated SAR image is
then inverted to obtain the wind speed using a C-band
model function (CMOD5) and using auxiliary wind direc-
tion information from numerical weather model (National Figure 5. Wind retrieval from (a) coastal winds from ENVISAT
ASAR (output resolution 975 m) and (b) open ocean winds from
Centre for Environmental Prediction, Global Data RISAT-1 SAR (output resolution 900 m).
Assimilation System, NCEP-GDAS)28. This auxiliary
information of wind direction is necessary to invert
CMOD5, because single-antenna SAR cannot directly
measure wind direction. All the CMODs are developed
based on VV polarization SAR images. However, the
wind retrievals from HH polarized images are performed
using an azimuth and incident angle-dependent para-
meterization for the effective polarization ratio as given
by Mouche et al.29. Figure 5 shows SAR images from
ENVISAT and RISAT-1 and their corresponding retri-
eved winds. Figure 6 shows the validation results of
retrieved wind speeds from ENVISAT. The validation
results in Table 2 show that the accuracy of the output of
the algorithm is suited for operational use30.

Retrieval of ocean wave spectra: At typical incidence

angle between 20 to 70, SAR interacts with the ocean
surface through Braggs resonance31. Within this inci-
dence angle range ocean wave spectra are retrieved from
SAR images. From the speckle-free SAR intensity
Figure 6. Validation of ENVISAT ASAR-derived ocean surface wind
speeds with OSCAT, TMI, SSMI and JASON-2. Table 2 shows the
respective validation results with OSCAT, TMI, SSMI, Jason-2 and
their statistics.

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Table 2. Validation results with OSCAT, TMI, SSMI, Jason-2 and their statistics

Data No. of points Bias (m s1) Standard deviation (m s1) R

OSCAT/ASAR 629 0.87 1.17 0.94

TMI/ASAR 1641 0.48 1.51 0.89
SSMI/ASAR 634 0.38 0.99 0.93
Jason-2/ASAR 217 0.04 1.33 0.88
(OSCAT + TMI + SSM/I + Jason-2)/ASAR 3121 0.35 1.40 0.91

Figure 7. Retrieval of ocean wave spectra from a subset of RISAT-1 SAR image 952F1_S58_RV.

Figure 8. Ship detection from RISAT-1 SAR image 21343_VV. The adjacent table shows the number
of detected ships and their corresponding geo-location for the subset.

1.5 km patch on the ocean surface. The frame size pro-
vides a sufficiently large area that at least 10 cycles of
very long surface waves, up to 150 m in length, can be
included in a single frame. At the same time, the frames
are also small enough that the ocean surface can be
assumed homogeneous within a frame.
The mean intensity is subtracted from the image frame
and the resultant is normalized by dividing by the mean
intensity. This image of fractional modulation is then
Fourier transformed and squared to produce image inten-
sity-variance spectrum as a function of azimuth and range
wavenumber. The image is then corrected for stationary
response.
Since the resulting image has only two degrees of free-
dom, the value of the spectrum at each two-dimensional
wavenumber bin is a noisy representation of the underly-
ing spectrum. Hence from the 2D spectrum, 20% of the
ensemble average is subtracted after convolving with a
Gaussian-shaped kernel to remove the noise32. After this,
the 2D spectra are divided by magnitude of modulation
transfer function (MTF) that accounts for the modulation
of capillary wave by underlying gravity waves33. Figure 7
shows a RISAT-1 FRS-1 image and retrieved wave spectra.
Ship detection: Real-time detection of coastal as well as
open ocean ships using SAR images provides a valuable
aid for building a space-based surveillance system. From
the SAR imagery ships can be detected by means of their
intensity contrast relative to the immediate background.
In a SAR image, a 20 20 pixels window is selected. If
the intensity of a pixel is greater than the threshold (com-
puted by the mean and standard deviation of 400 pixels

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within a single window and assuming a constant false
alarm rate, CFAR) of the window enclosing the particular
pixel, the pixel is detected as a potential ship pixel34.
The window is then moved through the whole SAR image
searching all the potential ship pixels. When the searching
operation is completed, ships are identified based on the
ship pixels using a scanning-based ship cluster algorithm.
Figure 8 shows ship detection results from one RISAT-1
image. The algorithm has been validated using informa-
tion from Director General, Shipping Corporation, Mum-
bai and found to be very sound for operation purposes.
Future scope
This article discusses the algorithm development for
retrieval of high-resolution ocean surface winds, ocean
wave spectra and ship detection from SAR images for
operational utilization. All these algorithms were deve-
loped using ENVISAT ASAR data and then implemented
on RISAT-1 SAR data. Since RISAT-1 is now commis-
sioned for calval phase, much of RISAT-1 data could
not be used, particularly wide swath data. After the com-
pletion of calval phase, more data will be available to
the users and then extensive validations of these algo-
rithms are planned. Also, several new aspects of RISAT-
1 SAR, e.g. circular polarization, etc. can be utilized for
further improvement of these algorithms.
Analysis of structural components of Wular Lake
Ramsar Site, India based on RISAT-1 data
Study area
The study area Wular Lake, Jammu and Kashmir (J&K)
is an internationally important wetland under the Ramsar
Convention. The lake, along with the extensive marshes
surrounding it, is an important natural habitat for wildlife.
It is also an important habitat for fish, accounting for
60% of the total fish production in J&K. The lake is a
source of livelihood for the large human population living
along its fringes. Encroachments resulting in the conver-
sion of vast catchment areas into agriculture land, pollu-
tion from fertilizers and animal wastes, poaching of
waterfowl and migratory birds and weed infestation are
the main threats to the wetland.
Objectives and data used
The objective is to study application of initial set of SAR
(C-band HH/HV) data from RISAT-1 for extraction of
structural components of Wular Lake by way of delinea-
tion of open water and various vegetation types/densities.
The satellite includes RISAT-1 (C-band HH/HV, MRS
with 35.07 incidence angle and 18 m pixel spacing) geo-
496
referenced data of 12 July 2012. The field data comprises
vegetation-related information.
Methodology
The methodology involves a standard approach wherein:
The data were subjected to speckle removal.
The GPS-aided ground truth information is converted
into a spatial point-layer with the updated attributes of
field data.
Classification of the SAR data after defining the train-
ing classes based on ground truth as stored in the spa-
tial layer (point layer).
Results
RISAT-1 data comprising C-band HH/HV with 35 inci-
dence angle and pixel spacing of 18 m in MRS mode has
shown reasonably good geometric fidelity and uniformity
in contrast without much speckle (Figure 9).
The Wular Lake has an area of 11,377 ha (Table 3).
The classified image shows that Trapa natans and Trapa
bispinosa are dominant in the wetland, occupying an area
of 4427 ha. Due to lower density, water beneath Phrag-
mites communis could be delineated which accounts for
1206 ha area. Fringes of the wetland are observed to have
been planted or have natural vegetation comprising wil-
low, of two density classes medium density (1543 ha)
and high density (1767 ha). Paddy fields and fallow are
observed on the fringes, which together with willow indi-
cate encroachment into the wetland. Details of aerial
extents of various classes are given in Table 3.
Preliminary decision rule classification of
mangrove ecosystem using single-date VV
polarization SAR
Mangrove forests are found in the intertidal zones of
tropical and subtropical coastlines, and exist as an eco-
system comprising estuaries, lagoons, creeks and
Figure 9. (a) Wular Lake RISAT-1 SAR image (C-band HH/HV) of
12 July 2012 and (b) the corresponding classified image (colour codes
with their associated description are given in Table 3).
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Table 3. Area under various structural components in Wular Lake

Colour Area
code Class description (ha)
Open water 580
Low density Trapa (Trapa natans and T. bispinosa) 2,249
Medium density Trapa (T. natans and T. bispinosa) 809
High density Trapa (T. natans and T. bispinosa) 1,369
Medium density willow 1,543
High density willow 1,767
Water beneath the emergent vegetation (mainly Phragmites communis) 1,206
Habitation 947
Paddy fields 168
Fallow 739
Total 11,377

of studies on radar remote sensing has been reviewed in

the field of mangroves38. Though most of these studies
give immense knowledge in understanding radar interac-
tion with mangroves, one rarely finds large area applica-
tions leading to operational forestry requirements. Studies
regarding the characterization of Indian mangrove eco-
systems using SAR are minimal. The objective of the
present work is to study the usefulness of single-date VV
polarization C-band SAR for broad classification of man-
grove ecosystem.
Study area and datum used

The study area is Dhanchi Island (Figure 10), lying

Figure 10. LISS III false colour composite (FCC) showing Indian
Sundarbans as the dark red zone. Yellow colour depicts the boundaries
of the districts. The hollow rectangle overlaid on the FCC shows the
study area.
intertidal mudflats35. The mangrove forests consist of
spreading trees with numerous arched aerial roots and
pneumatophores. The system is sensitive to changes in
the local hydrological environment, and the changes are
typically manifested through alterations in their spe-
cies/community composition, structure and biomass.
Essentially, the backscatter coefficient of a mangrove
canopy depends upon the interaction of microwaves with
leaves, branches, trunks, above-ground roots/pneumato-
phores and the underlying mud/water. Thus, apart from
sensor parameters (polarization, frequency and incidence
angle), the type and structure of mangrove vegetation af-
fect the backscatter36.
Studies have already demonstrated that microwave
scattering and attenuation in C-band SAR result from inter-
actions with tree canopy and small secondary branches, but
C-band backscatter from tree trunks is small due to
minimal canopy penetration, resulting in a larger amount
of signal absorbed and less signal returned37. A summary
between 2136N2143N lat. and 8825E8828E
long. and located in the confluence of the Thakuran River
in the east, the Jagdal Ganga in the west and the Bay of
Bengal in the south. There are two prominent creeks in
the island; one originating from the east and the other
from the west.
RISAT-1 Fine Resolution Stripmap Beam (FRS) datum
having an incidence angle of 17.84 was utilized. Single-
date datum acquired on 10 May 2012 of ascending mode
(around 1709 h local time) was used. The datum charac-
teristics are provided in Table 4. The acquisition time of
the image corresponded with low-tide conditions in the
island.
Methodology
The processing of the single-date RISAT-1 datum for this
study involved downloading, speckle reduction and cali-
bration.
Mangrove ecosystem is composed of mangrove forests,
creeks/channels and mudflats. Thus, as a first step, one
has to discriminate mangrove forests from these associ-
ated classes. Mangroves being evergreen forests, the can-
opy undergoes changes during the phenological events
of flowering and fruiting39. Thus, one can expect little
deviation in backscatter signature during a particular sea-
son. However, the intra-class variability within mangrove
forests is significant, mainly due to species composition,
density, age and gradient from tidal influx.

CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 104, NO. 4, 25 FEBRUARY 2013 497

SPECIAL SECTION: RADAR IMAGING SATELLITE-1

Single polarization (VV) SAR datum was used and the high backscatter (Figure 11). The mangrove forests regis-
signatures of the different components of mangrove eco- tered backscatter values ranging from 12 to 7.5 dB.
system of the island were noted. Based on the backscatter
signatures and ancillary information, a knowledge base
Preliminary decision rule classification
was developed which culminated into decision rules that
were used for classification. The training sets were
The mangrove ecosystem of the island could be classified
selected using the mangrove ecosystem map of National
into mangrove forests, intertidal mudflat and creeks/
Wetland Inventory and Assessment, showing mangrove
channels (Figure 12). The mangrove forests could be
forests, creeks and intertidal mudflats40. Considering the
divided into two broad classes, viz. dense and sparse
intra-class variability within mangrove forests, care was
mangrove based on canopy closure (< 40% closure for
taken to consider training classes covering these variabili-
sparse mangrove and > 40% for dense mangrove). Thus,
ties. These categories were grouped into sub-classes. For
dense mangrove corresponded to very dense and moder-
each class training samples were appropriately selected.
ately dense forests, and sparse mangrove to open forests,
A decision rule algorithm was developed based on 65%
scrub and non forest zones of the forest cover classifica-
of training class signature and validated on the rest of
tion scheme provided by Forest Survey of India41. Since
35% samples. A mask of the mangrove region was cre-
low-tide conditions prevailed during the image acquisi-
ated using available Sundarban maps. Within this mask
tion time, mudflats could be demarcated along both the
different ranges of amplitude backscatter values of sin-
eastern and the western creeks and several other minor
gle-date VV polarization were used for rule development.
Using macro language of EASI/PACE, the decision rules
were generated to classify the single-date image.

Results and discussion

VV image and corresponding backscatter values

In the image intertidal mudflats appeared dark due to low

backscatter and creeks/channels appeared bright due to

Table 4. Datum characteristics

Datum characteristics Specification

Product format RISAT-1-GeoTIFF

SAR band and polarization C band, VV polarization
Beam mode FRS1
Sampled pixel spacing (m) 99
Number of looks (range azimuth) 24
Incidence angle (degree) 17.84
Pass direction Ascending
Map projection UTM
Date of acquisition 10 May 2012 Figure 12. Preliminary decision rule classification of mangrove eco-
Acquisition time (local) Around 17 : 09 h (IST) system applied on the mask of mangrove region of Dhanchi Island on
VV image.

Figure 11. Mean backscatter values with standard deviation bars (of
the population means) of VV polarization of different mangrove eco- Figure 13. Proportion of different classes of mangrove ecosystem of
system components of Dhanchi Island. Dhanchi Island.

498 CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 104, NO. 4, 25 FEBRUARY 2013

 SPECIAL SECTION: RADAR IMAGING SATELLITE-1
Figure 14. Ground photographs of different classes of mangrove ecosystem of Dhanchi Island.
Figure 15. Parts of the palaeochannel of the lost Sarasvati around
Anupgarh, northern Rajasthan as seen on (a) RISAT SAR acquired on
12 July 2012; (b) Landsat ETM FCC and (c) FCC of RISAT SAR and
Landsat ETM merged product.
creeks and channels. Mudflats could be also discrimi-
nated along the eastern coast of the island. The proportion
of the different mangrove ecosystem components in the
CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 104, NO. 4, 25 FEBRUARY 2013
island was of the order dense mangrove > sparse man-
grove > intertidal mudflats > creeks/channels (Figure 13).
Major portions of the sparse mangrove occurred in the
area above the eastern creek (Binidar creek) and in the
area between the two creeks. Figure 14 shows ground
photographs of the different classes.
Potentials of RISAT SAR in detecting
palaeo/buried channels
The region of northwestern India (covering the states of
Punjab, Haryana, Gujarat and Rajasthan) and floodplains
of River Indus and its tributaries in Pakistan are
geographically diverse, geologically active and rich in
archaeological sites of Harappan Civilization (2500
500 BC). In the past few decades a large amount of work
has been carried out to map palaeo/buried channels in this
region using multi-sensor satellite data, including radar
data and understand their migration and evolution4250.
These studies have shown evidence of a prominent river
system, which has become buried under sand cover of the
Thar Desert sometime during late Holocene. This major
river has been identified as Sarasvati, a legendary river
mentioned in ancient Indian texts. Late Quaternary cli-
matic changes and neotectonics have significantly modi-
fied the ancient drainage courses in the region and it is
difficult to interpret buried/palaeo channels due to pres-
ence of vast spread of aeolian sand cover in optical
images. Sahai51, and Rajani and Rajawat52 have attempted
to understand spatial distribution and number of Harap-
pan sites along the identified courses of the River Saras-
vati by superposing location of Harappan sites on the
palaeochannels of the River Sarasvati in a GIS environ-
ment. The study could demonstrate that the clusters of
Harappan settlements from the mature period to later
period have moved in the same direction as the migration
499
SPECIAL SECTION: RADAR IMAGING SATELLITE-1
Figure 16. Palaeochannel detected on RISAT SAR and Landsat ETM
merged FCC covering parts of Barmer, Jalor and Pali districts in the
southern region of Luni River.
of the River Sarasvati. The analysis of ERS-1/2 SAR data
covering parts of Thar Desert in western Rajasthan led
to identification of hitherto unknown buried channels,
relict valleys and shallow, sand-covered limestone
areas47,49,50,53,54. Buried channel was identified near an
archaeological site, Talakadu (Mysore District, Karna-
taka) situated on the banks of the River Cauvery is south-
ern India using RADARSAT-1, C band, VV polarization,
fine-beam SAR data55,56 of 22, 25 April and 19 May
2008. RISAT SAR data in conjunction with optical images
are being analysed to detect buried channels and associ-
ated archaeological sites followed by field studies for
validation in the Thar Desert. Figures 15 and 16 demon-
strate the potential of RISAT SAR data to detect palaeo-
channels in parts of Rajasthan.
These are known palaeochannels, and distinct high to
moderate backscatter is observed on RISAT SAR images
due to higher soil moisture compared to the adjoining
sand-dune areas. In addition, lower topography along the
palaeochannel is better enhanced due to oblique illumina-
tion of SAR. Vegetation along the palaeochannel is dis-
tinctly seen on Landsat ETM FCC. Merged RISAT SAR
and Landsat ETM FCC integrate the complementary
information content of both sensors and the signature of
palaeochannel is distinctly enhanced. Work is in progress
to detect hitherto unknown palaeochannels in other parts
of the Thar Desert.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. This work was carried out under the
RISAT-1 Utilization Programme funded by ISRO. We thank A. S.
Kiran Kumar, Director, Space Applications Centre, ISRO, Ahmedabad
and Dr J. S. Parihar, Deputy Director, Earth, Ocean, Atmosphere,
Planetary Sciences and Applications Area for their encouragement.
501