Estimates of forest height in the Amazon basin using radar altimeter data of SARIN mode onboard Cryosat-2

Forest height is an important parameter for global carbon cycle studies. New technologies are required since the end of the operation ofGeoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) onboard The Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite (IceSat) in 2009. CryoSat-2 is a European Space Agencyenvironmental research satellite which was launched in April 2010.The SIRAL (SAR Interferometer Radar Altimeter) on board CryoSat-2 provides three operational modes for different observational requirements. Before the launch of Icesat2 around July 2016, CryoSat data represents a unique source of information on regional-to-global scale forest canopy height.We propose to use radar altimetry waveforms from the synthetic aperture/interferometric (SARin) mode to estimate canopy height in the Amazon basin. To understand the relation between canopy structure and the SIRAL waveform in Ku band, a 3D model was developed and implemented based on a Lidar model by introducingthe scattering items from crown, trunk and ground surface at Ku band. The vertical distribution of tree crown volume within a SIRAL footprint was calculated from its 3-D stand model by summing the volumes of all tree crown cells at the same height from the ground. The preliminary comparisons between simulated and measured SIRAL waveforms show that the model captures the major characteristics of the SIRAL signature. Cryosat waveform data of SARin mode and from June, 2011 to June, 2012 (cycle 04) is used to retrieve canopy height at Amazon basin under Cryosat groundtrack. The canopy height is derived by extracting the key points of vegetation and ground returns after noise estimation. Because of lack of field tree height measurement in 2012 at Amazon, we validated the results using the field measurements at four areas (the km 67 camp, the km 77 camp, Ruropolis, the Taoajos river) of Tapajos National Forest, Brazil in November 1999, and compared the results with the canopy height estimation from previous studies using Laser altimeter system (GLAS) data in the region in 2006. Preliminary results indicated that the histograms of the canopy height from these three sources were consistent.