HR: 10:20h
AN: B42B-01    [Abstracts]
TI: A Preliminary Study of Biomass Estimation of Boreal Forest in Alaska Using ALOS PALSAR Polarimetric Images
AU: * Li, S
EM: sli@gi.alaska.edu
AF: University of Alaska Fairbanks, 903 Koyukuk Drive, Fairbanks, AK 99775-7320, United States
AU: Wurtz, T
EM: fftlw@uaf.edu
AF: USDA Forest Service, 193 Arctic Health Research Building, UAF Main Campus, Fairbanks, AK 99775-7000, United States
AU: Gens, R
EM: rgens@asf.alaska.edu
AF: University of Alaska Fairbanks, 903 Koyukuk Drive, Fairbanks, AK 99775-7320, United States
AB: A reliable forest biomass determination is essential for understanding and modeling ecosystem dynamics, regional and global Carbon-fluxes, and their implications in global climate and environmental changes. The full- (HH+HV+VV+VH) and 2-polarization (HH+HV) information available from the Phased Array type L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (PALSAR) on the newly launched Japanese satellite, Advanced Land Observation Satellite (ALOS), offers a great opportunity for estimating forest biomass from Space. We investigate ALOS PALSAR application in forest biomass estimation through two approaches. The first involves SAR polarimetry. Multiple scattering within forest, especially within forest canopy causes change of vibration direction in return radar signals, resulting in increase of the proportion of cross-polarization (i.e., HV and VH) components. Consequently, the degree of polarization (the ratio of co-polarized received power-HH+VV-over the total received power) thus decreases with increasing biomass. The second approach involves with polarization phase difference (PPD) and its standard deviation. These two parameters increase with increase in multiple scattering. Therefore, they are also indicators of higher biomass. ALOS PALSAR data sets at test sites at Bonanza Creek Experimental Forest, Alaska, were acquired through the Americas ALOS Data Node (AADN) at Alaska Satellite Facility. Interferometric tools are used in data processing to relate complex images in different polarizations. The resulting interferometric phase images are used for PPD and coherence images for deviations in PPD. Analysis is made through comparison of the interferometric-based patterns of PPD and its standard deviation with ground truth gathered through previous field campaigns.
DE: 0439 Ecosystems, structure and dynamics (4815)
DE: 0480 Remote sensing
DE: 1855 Remote sensing (1640)
DE: 6924 Interferometry (1207, 1209, 1242)
SC: Biogeosciences [B]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting