Application of ERS-1 wind scatterometer data to soil frost and soil moisture monitoring in boreal forest zone

The feasibility of the ERS-1 Wind Scatterometer (WS) for monitoring the boreal forest zone is investigated, concentrating on soil frost and soil moisture monitoring. The ERS-1 WS measures the target area with coarse spatial resolution (about 50 km) using three separate antenna beams and a wide angular range. The investigations are concerned with the boreal forest zone using data (1) from test areas located in Finland and (2) covering the whole northern European boreal forest zone. The seasonal behavior of WS data is studied and a semiempirical forest backscattering model-based inversion method for the retrieval of soil moisture and for soil frost monitoring from WS data is developed. The developed inversion method employs nearly simultaneous three-beam measurements and a varying incidence angle. Promising results were obtained in the monitoring of soil frost, and the retrieval of soil moisture also appears to be a feasible field of application. The applicability of the instrument for forest biomass retrieval using single images was found to be limited to long-term change detection.

[1]  Pierre-Louis Frison,et al.  Use of ERS-1 wind scatterometer data over land surfaces , 1996, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens..

[2]  David G. Long,et al.  Calibration of spaceborne scatterometers using tropical rain forests , 1996, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens..

[3]  Kamal Sarabandi,et al.  Michigan microwave canopy scattering model , 1990 .

[4]  F. Ulaby,et al.  Vegetation modeled as a water cloud , 1978 .

[5]  Eric Mougin,et al.  Monitoring global vegetation dynamics with ERS-1 wind scatterometer data , 1996 .

[6]  Martti Hallikainen,et al.  Radar backscatter from boreal forest in winter , 1997, IGARSS'97. 1997 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium Proceedings. Remote Sensing - A Scientific Vision for Sustainable Development.

[7]  Juha Hyyppä,et al.  Backscattering properties of boreal forests at the C- and X-bands , 1994, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens..

[8]  F. Ulaby,et al.  Microwave Dielectric Behavior of Wet Soil-Part II: Dielectric Mixing Models , 1985, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[9]  Kamal Sarabandi,et al.  An empirical model and an inversion technique for radar scattering from bare soil surfaces , 1992, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens..

[10]  K. Boehnke,et al.  Global land surface monitoring using the ERS-1 scatterometer , 1994, Proceedings of IGARSS '94 - 1994 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium.

[11]  J.T. Pulliainen,et al.  Seasonal dynamics of C-band backscatter of boreal forests with applications to biomass and soil moisture estimation , 1996, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens..

[12]  Kaj Andersson,et al.  Estimation of biomass and other characteristics of boreal forest over extensive areas using NOAA-AVHRR data , 1995, Remote Sensing.

[13]  K. Boehnke,et al.  Thawing of soils in Siberia observed by the ERS-1 scatterometer between 1992 and 1995 , 1996, IGARSS '96. 1996 International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium.