Microwave Measurements of Dielectric Properties of Corn Vegetation at C-Band and Comparison with Debye- Cole Dual Dispersion Model

Abstract Microwave irradiations from vegetation canopy are strongly influenced by its dielectric properties and give useful information for microwave remote sensing -interpretation and applications. This paper reports on the laboratory measurements of dielectric properties of corn vegetation at C-Band frequency. Von Hipple method is used to measure complex dielectric properties using automated C-Band microwave bench set up. The least square fitting technique is used to calculate dielectric constant (ε′), dielectric loss (ε″) and errors in their measurements. The measured data is compared with Debye-Cole Dual Dispersion model. Emissivity and radiometric brightness temperature are theoretically estimated from measured dielectric properties at different angles of incidence for dry and moist corn leaves using Fresnel equations.