L-band and P-band studies of vegetation at JPL

Abstract

Longer wavelength radar signals are known to penetrate deeper into foliage. L-Band and P-band radars have been used extensively by the remote sensing community for vegetation studies. Radar interferometry, in particular polarimetric radar interferometry has been shown to be able to estimate vegetation structure parameters, for example vegetation height, to meter level accuracy with suitable imaging geometries. Several proposed mission including the ESA BIOMASS and NASA NISAR are planned to operate at these higher frequencies and to estimate various biophysical vegetation parameters. This paper will present some results of polarimetric-interferometric studies of temporal and tropical forests using airborne L-band and P-band radar data collected by the UAVSAR and AIRMOSS radars and comparing them to in situ measurements. These will be used to inform the ability to extract vegetation information for these spaceborne missions.