Forest Profiling with Multiple Observation Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar

Measurements of the vertical structure of forest vegetation bear on ecosystem state, such as biodiversity, carbon dynamics, and fire susceptibility, and the estimation of forest biomass. Global monitoring of vertical vegetation structure is one of the most important and as yet unrealized goals of forest remote sensing. The Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) phase and coherence observations are directly sensitive to the vertical distribution of electromagnetic dielectric in the forest medium. This dielectric distribution in turn depends on vegetation density as a function of the vertical coordinate. Multiple InSAR observations--multiple baseline, multiple frequency, and/or multiple polarization--must be used to uniquely estimate vegetation density profiles. This talk explains the need for multiple observation strategies and the benefits of multiple- baseline, multiple-frequency, and multiple-polarization strategies. Multiple baseline tropical forest profiles from C-band (wavelength=0.056 m) InSAR will be shown, as well as results from L-band (0.25 m) few-baseline observations over La Selva Biological Station, Costa Rica. Both surface-deformation measurements and those relevant to vertical-vegetation structure may result from a single InSAR mission design, provided, for example, that multiple nonzero baselines are flown along with the zero-baseline configuration preferred for deformation. The possibility of mutually improving the accuracy of deformation and structure in a simultaneous- measurement scenario will be discussed. There is also potential synergy with other remote sensing missions, such as the Tandem X InSAR mission, for delivering forest structure.