Capabilities of a forest coherent scattering model applied to radiometry, interferometry, and polarimetry at P- and L-band

• Published in: IEEE transactions on geoscience and remote sensing Vol. 44; no. 4; pp. 849 - 862
• Main Authors: Thirion, L., Colin, E., Dahon, C.
• Format: Journal Article Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY IEEE 01-04-2006; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Animal, plant and microbial ecology; Applied geophysics; Biological and medical sciences; Coherent scattering; Cosmos; Costs; Earth sciences; Earth, ocean, space; Electromagnetic scattering; Exact sciences and technology; Forest; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; General aspects. Techniques; Interferometry; Internal geophysics; L-band; Mathematical models; Meteorology; modeling; Moisture; Numerical models; P-band; Polarimetry; Radar; Radar data; Radar imaging; Radar polarimetry; Radar scattering; Radio interferometry; Radiometry; synthetic aperture radar (SAR); Teledetection and vegetation maps; ground truth; wave scattering; cost; modeling; density; high frequency; interferometry; simulation; L band; forests; backscattering; L-band; electromagnetic waves; synthetic aperture radar; synthetic aperture radar (SAR); interpretation; numerical models; radiometry; Forest; P-band; Polarimetry
• ISSN: 0196-2892; 1558-0644
• DOI: 10.1109/TGRS.2005.862523

The interpretation of radar data would ideally require extensive and numerous observations. However, the number of observations is limited by the difficulty and the cost of acquiring ground truth and radar data. On the other hand, numerical models can provide a wide range of situations, both in inputs and in outputs. More precisely, they have to provide radiometric, polarimetric, and interferometric simulations and be applicable to various forested areas (high density, high/low moisture, inhomogeneous area, etc.) and radar configurations (low/high frequency, bistatic observation, etc.). This paper is dedicated to the presentation of the capabilities of a descriptive coherent scattering model (COSMO) applied to the electromagnetic study of the backscattering by forested areas. Improvements have been implemented in order to produce in output a radar image, which can be treated with the same polarimetric and interferometric tools as those applied to real synthetic aperture radar images. Thus, comparisons are possible. COSMO has been widely tested from P- to L- bands, over temperate and tropical forests and applied to radiometry, polarimetry, and interferometry. It appears finally as an efficient simulating tool to carry out parametric studies and to analyze how the total scattered field is built from canonical mechanisms and individual scatterer contributions.