## 4 Results and Discussion
### Temporal Features and Parameter Values  
Temporal signatures were extracted for each monitoring field and used to generate the six temporal features. The temporal signatures observed in the monitoring locations for each site are provided in the Supplemental Information section (Table S2). Fields where the rice crop did not reach maturity because of flood or drought were excluded (11 out of 228 were excluded, less than 5%). The criteria in Table 3 were applied to the temporal feature values and used to select the six parameter values for each site. The temporal features and their related parameters are shown in Table 4, where shaded table cells highlight cases where the relationship between the temporal feature and the parameter (see Table 3) was not met. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l l} \hline \hline
**Parameter** & **Relationship between Parameter and Temporal Feature** \\ \hline a = lowest mean & a \(<\) (i) minima of the mean \(\sigma^{\circ}\) across all rice signatures \\ \hline b = highest mean & b \(>\) (ii) maxima of the mean \(\sigma^{\circ}\) across all rice signatures \\ \hline c = maximum variation & c \(>\) (vi) maxima of the range in \(\sigma^{\circ}\) across all rice signatures \\ \hline d = max value at \(SoS\) & d \(>\) (iii) highest minima in \(\sigma^{\circ}\) across all rice signatures \\ \hline e = min value at peak & e \(<\) (iv) lowest maxima in \(\sigma^{\circ}\) across all rice signatures \\ \hline f = minimum variation & f \(<\) (v) minima of the range in \(\sigma^{\circ}\) across all rice signatures \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 3: Site-specific parameters for the rule-based classification and the criteria used to select them based on temporal features. \(t_{maxlength}\) was held constant at 120 days; \(t_{minlength}\) was held constant at 60 days; and \(t_{2}-t_{1}\) was kept constant at a very conservative 45 days across all sites. From the table, it can be noted that the six rice parameters (expressed in dB) are consistent across sites and that the choice of parameters agreed with the temporal feature descriptors criteria in all but five out of 78 cases, and in two of those cases, the criteria were very close to being met. We provide some specific comments on the parameters and the additional user knowledge required at some sites to refine the parameter value:  
\(a\), defined as the lowest mean of the temporal data stack, is meant to mask out the lowest values, typically occurring over water and was set in the range of \(-18\) to \(-14\) dB. In a few cases, it was clear from visual interpretation of the imagery that this setting was not sufficient. For the three sites in Tamil Nadu, water tanks were not always excluded, because of the cycle of drainage and replenishment for irrigation. In Soc Trang, the draining of aquaculture ponds led to the same effect. In these specific cases, a simple threshold should be augmented with the use of ancillary data to mask out such features. \(b\), defined as the highest mean of the temporal data stack, is the inverse of \(a\) and masks out the strong backscatter, which is typical of settlements, and was set in the range of \(-7.5\) to \(-9\) dB. At only one site was the temporal feature criterion not met, by the small margin of \(0.1\) dB. \(c\) and\(f\) correspond to the maximum and minimum variation, reflecting the range of backscatter within the rice temporal signature over the whole season, hence excluding land cover, such as forest, that has