Polarization utilization in the microwave inversion of leaf angle distributions

The inverse problem of deducting the inclination angle distribution of leafy vegetation has been investigated using L-band multipolarization backscattered data. The modeling procedure replaces canopy leaves with thin circular dielectric disks. The Born approximation is then used to establish a linear relationship between the radar backscattering coefficients and the leaf inclination angle distribution. The inversion of the leaf angle distribution is carried out for horizontal, vertical, and cross-polarized data. It is shown that the results of the inversion using vertical and cross-polarized data are comparable to the inversion results of horizontally polarized data obtained previously (R. Lang and H. Saleh, 1985)