3-D Structure Of Forests: First Analysis of Tomogram Changes Due to Weather and Seasonal Effects at L-Band

Abstract:
Due to its ecological importance, the monitoring of the vertical structure of forests is continuously raising the interest of the synthetic aperture radar (SAR) scientific community. SAR tomography allows reconstructing the 3-D distribution of the radar power backscattered by a volume by combining more than two SAR acquisitions with baseline diversity. Beyond specific estimation algorithms, the link between the estimated tomograms (depending in general on frequency, polarization and acquisition geometry) and physical forest structure is essential for establishing potential applications. In this work, we contribute to this topic by presenting first investigations aimed to characterize the changes on forest tomograms due to weather and seasonal effects, with the perspective of analysing potentials for monitoring forest ecosystem changes and discuss guidelines for an effective implementation of spaceborne forest structure sensing.