ASAR multi-temporal image from Dragon activity

Imagery from Shaun's Dragon Programme activity. The ASAR data combined to make this multi-temporal composite come from May, August and October 2004. Compare to the Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) and Chinese land cover map shown below. The most obvious thing to say is that both ASAR and TM show very large changes in land cover over the four years. TM and ASAR contain many similarities, but the ASAR shows more variability, because of the sensitivity of SAR to environmental conditions.
Notice also that the SAR distinguishes forest (in the southwest) from crops (all showing as green in TM) because the forest does not change during the year, while crops follow their seasonal calendar.