Simulation and comparison of JERS-1 and ERS-1 SAR images

In the JAROS/NASA JERS-1 SAR Simulation Project, the NASA/JPL DC-8 SAR (AIRSAR) was flown over six test sites in the USA in summer of 1990. The authors simulated JERS-1 and ERS-1 SAR Images from AIRSAR data and compared them. From the simulation procedure, it is noticed that the radar backscatter of average land surfaces agrees with that of the Lambertian surface at L-band, but that a rougher surface model is requiring for C-band backscatter. Simulated JERS-1 and ERS-1 SAR images show that stereo SAR images can be realized by these two satellite measurements instead of a difference of radar frequency, and that JERS-1 L-band SAR is more sensitive to the amount of vegetation than ERS-1 C-band SAR. With a combination of JERS-1 and ERS-1 SARs for relatively flat areas, discrimination of areas with sparsely scattered small trees or less and areas with more amount of vegetation (forest and so on) is expected