A topographic correction method for forest height retrieval from polarimetric interferometric SAR images

Author

Yong-sheng Zhou ; Chuan-rong Li ; Ling-ling Ma ; Ning Wang ; Qi Liu

Author_Institution

Key Lab. of Quantitative Remote Sensing Inf. Technol., Tsinghua Univ., Beijing, China

fYear

2013

fDate

21-26 July 2013

Firstpage

188

Lastpage

191

Abstract

Retrieving forest parameters, such as forest height, biomass from polarimetric and interferometric SAR (Pol-InSAR) images has been investigated and well demonstrated via airborne experiments for different types of forest. Terrain slope is a factor that always prevents the wide application of SAR technique due to its slant-looking imaging geometry. It induces changes of backscattering intensity, polarimetric response, etc. Regarding Pol-InSAR forest height retrieval, the effects of terrain slope on retrieval accuracy have been analyzed. The relation between terrain slope and forest height retrieval bias was established through theoretical analysis and simulation procedures based on the PolSARpro software. Based on these results, a simple topographic correction method for forest height retrieval from Pol-InSAR images was presented. This method could alleviate forest retrieval error in rugged areas easily.

Keywords

radar imaging; radar interferometry; radar polarimetry; remote sensing by radar; synthetic aperture radar; terrain mapping; vegetation; Pol-InSAR images; PolSARpro software; SAR technique; airborne experiments; backscattering intensity; forest height retrieval; forest parameters; forest retrieval error; interferometric SAR image; polarimetric SAR image; slant-looking imaging geometry; terrain slope; terrain slope effects; topographic correction method; Azimuth; Biomass; Coherence; Estimation error; Synthetic aperture radar; Pol-InSAR; forest height; terrain slope;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS), 2013 IEEE International

Conference_Location

Melbourne, VIC

ISSN

2153-6996

Print_ISBN

978-1-4799-1114-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IGARSS.2013.6721123

Filename

6721123