The synergy of SAR polarimetry and interferometry for forest parameters retrieval

In this paper we deal with the combination of SAR polarimetry and SAR interferometry to estimate bio-physical parameters, in particular the height of vegetated areas. We show a preliminary inversion approach that uses the polarimetric and interferometric (POLINSAR) coherence phase to estimate forest height. The POLINSAR degree of coherence is first optimized to identify the ground and top-canopy height, and then corrected for the wave penetration and terrain slope. We use a coherent POLINSAR scattering model to estimated the correction parameters. ALOS-PALSAR data are used to illustrate the results.