Cosmo-SkyMed backscatter intensity and interferometric coherence signatures over Germany´s low mountain range forested areas

In this paper, we present some investigations based on X-band interferometric coherence for retrieving forest Growing Stock Volume (GSV). Exanimating first temporal decorrelation, a comparison indicated total (γ=0.1-0.2), (γ=0.1-0.4) and low (γ=0.4-0.9) temporal decorrelation for TSX (11 days repeat pass), CSK (1 day repeat pass) and TDX (single pass) respectively. After studying also the spatial decorrelation, it could be pointed out that the increase of the perpendicular baseline enhanced the sensitivity to the volume of the forest canopies. CSK and TDX were further investigated in order to highlight their sensitivity to GSV. Volume decorrelation seemed to be dominant, as the coherence decreased with increasing vegetation. However, TDX seemed more suitable than CSK to retrieve GSV as it showed higher correlation (r²_TDX=0.64, r²_CSK=0.13).