Application of JERS-1 InSAR for monitoring deforestation of tropical rain forest

The authors studied the applicability of interferometric SAR (InSAR) using JERS-1 SAR data for monitoring the change of tropical rain forest due to deforestation and plantation development. First, the changing patterns of SAR backscattering intensity of JERS-1 SAR data were investigated. The result indicated that the SAR backscatter generally increased just after deforestation, which is the reverse change from that estimated by the results of conventional studies, and therefore, the detection of some of the deforested areas became difficult only by using the backscatter changes. Then, the coherence images were generated by several interferometric JERS-1 SAR data pairs and they were compared with the backscatter changing patterns, By the result of this comparison, it was proved that the coherence information obtained by InSAR can be used effectively to confirm deforestation when the backscatter changes are complicated and difficult to interpret