Investigation of forest areas in Germany and Brazil using SAR data of the SIR-C/X-SAR and other SAR missions

In a PI project for ecology and vegetation monitoring multifrequency SAR data of the SIR-C/X-SAR mission in April and October 1994 are under investigation for forest mapping and rainforest monitoring. Test sites are German forest areas in the Harz Mountains and in Bavaria. Within a cooperation with the National Brasilian Space Research Institute (INPE), a region in the state of Acre in the Brasilian rainforest is included. Investigations in the Harz are based on experience with multifrequency polarimetric. AIRSAR data which have been registered in 1991 by an JPL aircraft. In Acre in the Southwestern Amazon, X-SAR data of April and October 1994 are used for studies of the deforestation dynamics, in comparison with ERS-1 SAR data. Classifications of forest/nonforest areas are in introduced, based on different SAR data. Using SIR-C datasets, the different information content of X-, C- and L-band data is discussed for a rainforest area