Capabilities of Full-Polarimetric PALSAR/ALOS for Snow Extent Mapping

Author

Longépé, Nicolas ; Shimada, Masanobu ; Allain, Sophie ; Pottier, Eric

Author_Institution

IETR Lab., Univ. of Rennes 1, Rennes

Volume

4

fYear

2008

fDate

7-11 July 2008

Abstract

Snow classification using full-polarimetric PALSAR data is investigated in this paper. It is first demonstrated that dry snowpack over frozen ground slightly affects polarimetric signature at L-band. Given the fact that PALSAR data do not permit the use of a simplistic threshold-based method, a refined method for Snow Covered Area mapping is outlined. A supervised Support Vector Machine approach is used showing fairly good results within the framework of a three-classes classification (dry snow over frozen ground, wet snow and no snow).

Keywords

backscatter; geophysics computing; radar interferometry; radar polarimetry; remote sensing by radar; snow; support vector machines; synthetic aperture radar; terrain mapping; ALOS; Advanced Land Observing Satellite; EM backscattering; PALSAR; Phased Array type L- band Synthetic Aperture Radar; Snow Covered Area mapping; Support Vector Machine; interferometric SAR data; polarimetry; snow classification; snow extent mapping; Aerospace testing; L-band; Meteorology; Sensor arrays; Snow; Soil measurements; Space exploration; Support vector machine classification; Support vector machines; Synthetic aperture radar; Snow; Support Vector Machine (SVM); Synthetic Aperture Radar;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, 2008. IGARSS 2008. IEEE International

Conference_Location

Boston, MA

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-2807-6

Electronic_ISBN

978-1-4244-2808-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IGARSS.2008.4779900

Filename

4779900