Application of theoretical model for microwave remote sensing of forest

In order to interpret measurements made by airborne and spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems, a variety of theoretical models have been developed. Among them, the radiative transfer theory has been applied extensively. A theoretical model based on the radiative transfer theory is used to calculate the polarimetric backscattering from forest. This model is used to interpret the measured data collected over a pine forest (The Landes forest, France) using the NASA/JPL airborne SAR system, and is subsequently applied to investigate the sensitivity of backscattering coefficients to different forest parameters of interest. The sensitivity study at different frequencies and polarizations can be used to determine the feasibility of inverting for the forest parameters from the radar backscattering measurements