Multiband-scatterometer data analysis of forests

Abstract

The airborne multiband scatterometer DUTSCAT promises to become a useful tool for research in the field of active microwave remote sensing. The system can measure accurate σ ° values in six frequency bands simultaneously at a selected incidence angle and polarization. An evaluation of the use of this system for research in forestry, in particular the problems related with probing thick vegetation canopies, is given. The system can acquire information on the vertical distribution of backscattering. Through inversion of a multilevel model, σ ° of forests can be divided in contributions from a number of arbitrarily chosen layers ( three or four). A simple and accurate new approach for the computation of cc values for forests (or other thick vegetation covers) from scatterometer data is given and compared with the less accurate ‘ standard’ way of processing used for other types of targets.