Estimation of forest biomass from L-band polarimetric decomposition components

Using an airborne L-band system the impact of increased spatial resolution and a fully polarized sensor on biomass retrieval was investigated. A water cloud type model was used to retrieve biomass from backscatter intensities and polarimetric target decomposition components. The analysis revealed similar biomass estimation errors (around 60%) when using backscatter intensity and polarimetric decomposition metrics. These results indicate that fully polarized L-band missions would not significantly improve the accuracy of biomass estimation using existing modelling approaches. New methods, such as polarimetric interferometry, have to be perfected and tested over a wide range of conditions to take advantage of their increased capabilities.