Simulated biomass retrieval from the spaceborne tomographic Saocom-CS mission at L-band

• Main Authors: Blomberg, E., Soja, M.J., Ferro-Famil, Laurent, Ulander, L.M.H., Tebaldini, S.
• Other Authors: Institut d'Électronique et des Technologies du numéRique (IETR), Université de Nantes - UFR des Sciences et des Techniques (UN UFR ST), Université de Nantes (UN)-Université de Nantes (UN)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-CentraleSupélec-Institut National des Sciences Appliquées - Rennes (INSA Rennes), Institut National des Sciences Appliquées (INSA)-Université de Rennes (UNIV-RENNES)-Institut National des Sciences Appliquées (INSA)-Université de Rennes (UNIV-RENNES)-Université de Rennes 1 (UR1), Université de Rennes (UNIV-RENNES), Dipartimento di Elettronica, Informazione e Bioingegneria (DEIB), Politecnico di Milano Milan (POLIMI)
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2016
• Subjects: Tomographic synthetic aperture radars; Single polarization; Space-borne; Biomass; Carbon; Forestry; Radar; Tomography; Above ground biomass; Biomass retrieval; Boreal forests; Carbon cycles; Northern sweden; Synthetic aperture radar; [SPI.TRON]Engineering Sciences [physics]/Electronics; [INFO.INFO-NI]Computer Science [cs]/Networking and Internet Architecture [cs.NI]; Northern Sweden
• Online Access: https://hal-univ-rennes1.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01380640

International audience This paper presents an evaluation of above-ground biomass (ABG) retrieval in boreal forests using simulated tomographic synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) data corresponding to the future SAOCOM-CS (L-band 1.275 GHz) mission. Using forest and radar data from the BioSAR 2008 campaign at the Krycklan test site in northern Sweden the expected performance of SAOCOM-CS is evaluated and compared with the E-SAR airborne Lband SAR (1.300 GHz). It is found that SAOCOM-CS data produce retrievals on par with those obtained with E-SAR, with retrievals having a relative RMSE of 30% or less. This holds true even if the acquisitions are limited to a single polarization, with HH results shown as an example.