Polarimetric L-band ALOS for peatland subsurface water monitoring

The potential of L-band PALSAR for monitoring water flow beneath the peat surface is demonstrated on a subarctic peatland in the Wapusk National Park and a boreal peatland in the Athabasca oil sand exploration region (near Fort McMurray, Alberta). Such unique potential permits an enhanced discrimination of poor fen from bogs; two wetland classes that can hardly be discriminated by optic and conventional SAR sensors. The Touzi scattering type phase φα_s is shown to be the only target scattering decomposition parameter that can detect water flow variations beneath the peat surface.