Title :
The contribution of trunk-ground interactions to the SAR backscatter from a coniferous forest
Author :
Luckman, A.J. ; Baker, John R.
Author_Institution :
Remote Sensing Appl. Dev. Unit, British Nat. Space Centre, Abbots Ripton, UK
Abstract :
The overall SAR backscatter from forest targets can be viewed as arising from contributions due to surface scattering, volume scattering and double-bounce scattering from tree trunks and ground The paper demonstrates the presence of double bounce scattering in P-band AIRSAR imagery of a coniferous forest on mountainous terrain in the UK by examining the backscattering coefficient and copolarised phase difference as a function of trunk-ground angle. The high sensitivity of double-bounce scatter to trunk-ground angle as predicted by scattering models is confirmed although for this test site the proportional contribution of this mechanism is lower than that suggested by other studies
Keywords :
backscatter; electromagnetic wave polarisation; electromagnetic wave scattering; forestry; radar cross-sections; radar imaging; remote sensing by radar; synthetic aperture radar; P-band AIRSAR imagery; SAR backscatter; UK; backscattering coefficient; coniferous forest; copolarised phase difference; double-bounce scattering; mountainous terrain; surface scattering; trunk-ground angle; trunk-ground interactions; volume scattering; Azimuth; Backscatter; Forestry; Image resolution; Pixel; Polarization; Radar scattering; Remote sensing; Spatial resolution; Surface topography;
Conference_Titel :
Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, 1995. IGARSS '95. 'Quantitative Remote Sensing for Science and Applications', International
Conference_Location :
Firenze
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-2567-2
DOI :
10.1109/IGARSS.1995.524100
