Exploring the Potential Use of Sentinel-1 and 2 Satellite Imagery for Monitoring Winter Wheat Growth under Agricultural Drought Conditions in North-Western Poland

Abstract

This paper presents analyses of the potential use of Sentinel-1 (S-1) and Sentinel-2 (S-2) imagery to generate models of winter wheat growth under agricultural drought vs. normal conditions identified based on potential yield losses calculated in the Agricultural Drought Monitoring System (ADMS). The analyses carried out showed the sensitivity of satellite images to agricultural drought conditions determined in ADMS. The study was conducted in a large region, the West Pomeranian Voivodeship (NUTS PL42), and the analysis covered about 22,935 polygons with winter wheat production that constituted a total area of about 108,000 ha in the period from the 1st of April to the 1st of July 2021. For S-1 data, VH and VV backscatter and the VH/VV ratio were calculated, and for S-2 data, NDVI and NDWI indices were calculated, which were used to build models of winter wheat growth under water stress and in normal conditions. The obtained results presented in this work include: (i) Development of a test version of a model describing the winter wheat crop’s growth, with a preliminary assessment showing the potential for recognizing water shortage effects; and (ii) identification of promising indicators of water scarcity for crops, calculated based on S-1 and S-2 images, that could be recommended for application in remote sensing (RS) of drought effects as complementary multispectral and radar observations. The results obtained in this work also gave many clues regarding the direction and method of including satellite remote sensing in national monitoring programmes, which involves operations on many types of big data sets.