MONITORING WHEAT CROP GROWTH PARAMETERS USING TIME SERIES SENTINEL-1 AND SENTINEL-2 DATA FOR AGRICULTURAL APPLICATION IN MONGOLIA

Abstract. Wheat is the most important food crop in Mongolia, most of the croplands are utilizing for wheat cultivating area in the central northern region of Mongolia. The Mongolian government has several policies on the agricultural sector with wheat production in the study region has been intensified to meet people’s food demands and economic development. Monitoring wheat-growing areas is thus important to developing strategies for food security in the region. In the present study, we aimed to develop an agricultural application method using remote sensing data. Sentinel-1 SAR and Sentinel-2 MSI analysis of time series data were carried out to monitor the wheat crop growth parameters. Time-series images were acquired during May 2019–September 2019 at different growth stages in Bornuur soum, Tuv province of Mongolia. The wheat crop parameters, i.e. normalized difference vegetation index, vegetation water content, backscatter value of VV, VH channels were estimated using remote sensing data with reference data as cadastre polygons of current cropland area. The results showed that provide timely and valuable information for agricultural production, management and policy-making. The agricultural application method will help to agriculture management and monitoring include crop identification and cropland mapping, crop growth monitoring, inversion of key biophysical, biochemical and environmental parameters, crop damage/disaster monitoring, precision agriculture, etc.