Evaluating the Potential of ERS SAR in Forest Monitoring.

Abstract

In reply to the second ERS announcement of opportunity we proposed anexperiment comprising three major parts: 1. Ground truth collection including a) tree architecture b) continuous monitoring of dielectric constants, water flux, soil moisture and micro climate c) microwave attenuation through the canopz, water content, and water potential. 2. Review and validation of existing radar backscatter models. 3. Comparative and synergistic analysis of data from SIR-C/X-SAR, ERS-1/2, JERS-1 and DLR's airborne E-SAR in order to derive optimum frequency/polarization combinations to retrieve stand vitality parameters