Dependence of radar backscatter on coniferous forest biomass

Journal Article · Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 EST 1992 · IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers); (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/36.134090· OSTI ID:5119514

Dobson, M C; Ulaby, F T ^[1]; LeToan, T; Beaudoin, A ^[2]; Kasischke, E S ^[3]; Christensen, N ^[4]

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1. Radiation Lab., Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (US)
2. Univ. Paul Sabatier, Toulouse (FR)
3. Environmental Research Inst. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (US)
4. School of Environment, Duke Univ., Durham, NC (US)

This paper discusses two independent experimental efforts which have examined the dependence of radar backscatter on aboveground biomass of mono specie conifer forests using polarimetric airborne SAR data at P-, L- and C-bands. Plantations of maritime pines near Landes, France range in age from 8 to 46 years with aboveground biomass between 5 and 105 tons/ha. Loblolly pine stands established on abandoned agricultural fields near Duke, NC range in age from 4 to 90 years and extend the range of aboveground biomass to 560 tons/ha for the older stands. These two experimental forests are largely complementary with respect to biomass. Radar backscatter is found to increase approximately linearly with increasing biomass until it saturates at a biomass level that depends on the radar frequency. The biomass saturation level is about 200 tons/ha at P-band and 100 tons/ha at L-band, and the C-band backscattering coefficient shows much less sensitivity to total aboveground biomass.

• OSTI ID: 5119514
• Journal Information: IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers); (United States), Vol. 30:2; ISSN 0196-2892
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

09 BIOMASS FUELS
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
37 INORGANIC
ORGANIC
PHYSICAL AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION
BIOMASS
REMOTE SENSING
NORTH CAROLINA
FORESTS
SYNTHETIC-APERTURE RADAR
BACKSCATTERING
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
PERFORMANCE TESTING
POLARIMETRY
SENSITIVITY
DATA
DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
ENERGY SOURCES
INFORMATION
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
NORTH AMERICA
NUMERICAL DATA
RADAR
RANGE FINDERS
RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES
SCATTERING
TESTING
USA
090700* - Biomass Fuels- Resources- (1990-)
540210 - Environment
Terrestrial- Basic Studies- (1990-)
400101 - Activation
Nuclear Reaction
Radiometric & Radiochemical Procedures
440700 - Geophysical & Meteorological Instrumentation- (1990-)