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

• Main Authors: Blomberg, Erik, Soja, Maciej, Ferro-Famil, L., Ulander, Lars, Tebaldini, S.
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: Geophysics; Tomographic synthetic aperture radars; Radar; Biomass; Biomass retrieval; Carbon; Synthetic aperture radar; Space-borne; Forestry; Tomography; Northern sweden; Carbon cycle; Carbon cycles; Above ground biomass; Single polarization; Boreal forests; Global vegetation; Northern Sweden
• Online Access: https://research.chalmers.se/en/publication/244671

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.