Effects of a magnetic storm on the coherence channel of P band satellite interferograms

Abstract:
The Biomass mission aims to take measurements of forest biomass to assess terrestrial carbon stocks and fluxes [1]. One of the techniques proposed to monitor forest biomass is to measure forest height using polarimetric interferometry (POLINSAR). This technique is applied on polarimetric data acquired at two different dates. As POLINSAR assumes that loss of interferometric coherence is mainly due to volumic decorrelation, other causes of coherence loss lead to biases in the estimation of the forest height. In this paper we study the effect of a magnetic storm on interferograms and show that in case of a strong storm, the induced scintillation may introduce a coherence loss which can degrade forest height estimation when using POLINSAR. We then propose a correction scheme that retrieves coherence. This method is finally assessed on simulations.