Monitoring ecological dynamics in Africa with the ERS-1 scatterometer

Author

Wismann, Volkmar R. ; Boehnke, Kai ; Schmullius, Christiane

Author_Institution

Inst. for Applied Remote Sensing, wedel, Germany

Volume

2

fYear

34881

fDate

10-14 Jul1995

Firstpage

1523

Abstract

Radar backscatter measurements obtained over Africa by the C-band scatterometer aboard the First European Remote Sensing Satellite (ERS-1) are analyzed for the period from November 1991 to December 1994. The predominant signal in this time series is the annual variation of the normalized radar cross section (NRCS) in the savanna regions north and south of the tropical rain forest. The change in the incidence angle dependence of the NRCS as well as the increase in radar cross section correlates well with the precipitation rate and indicates an instantaneous onset of vegetation growth during the rainy season. In particular the exceptional high rain rates in 1994 as well as the drought in 1991/92 in southern Africa are well reflected in the NRCS data

Keywords

backscatter; forestry; geophysical techniques; radar cross-sections; remote sensing by radar; spaceborne radar; AD 1991; AD 1992; AD 1993; AD 1994; Africa; C-band; ERS-1; annual variation; backscatter; drought rainy season; ecological dynamics; ecology; forestry; incidence angle dependence; measurement technique; microwave SHF; radar cross section; radar remote sensing; radar scattering; rain forest; rural area; scatterometer; tropical area; vegetation growth; vegetation mapping; Africa; Backscatter; Radar cross section; Radar measurements; Radar remote sensing; Radar scattering; Rain; Remote monitoring; Satellites; Spaceborne radar;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, 1995. IGARSS '95. 'Quantitative Remote Sensing for Science and Applications', International

Conference_Location

Firenze

Print_ISBN

0-7803-2567-2

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IGARSS.1995.521798

Filename

521798