Polarization signatures of frozen and thawed forest of varying environmental state

During the two different overflights of the Bonanza Creek Experimental Fores (near Fairbanks, Alaska) by the NASA/JPL radar polarimeter in March 1988, the environmetnal conditions over the region changed significantly with temperature ranging from unseasonalby warm (1 to 9 degrees centigrade) during...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on geoscience and remote sensing 1994-01, Vol.32 (2), p.371-381
Main Authors: Kwok, Ronald, Rignot, Eric JM, Way, JoBea, Freeman, Anthony, Holt, John
Format: Article
Language:English
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:During the two different overflights of the Bonanza Creek Experimental Fores (near Fairbanks, Alaska) by the NASA/JPL radar polarimeter in March 1988, the environmetnal conditions over the region changed significantly with temperature ranging from unseasonalby warm (1 to 9 degrees centigrade) during one day to well below freezing ( -8 to -15 degrees centigrade) during the other. The moisture content of the snow and trees changed from a liquid to frozen state causing significant changes in the radiometric and polarimeteric responses of the forest to the radar wave. The L-band polarimetric observations are summarized served in certain forest stands at L-band. Features extracted from the Stokes matrices of the same stands from the thawed and frozen day suggest the changes in the relative contribution of the different scattering mechanisms to the radar return. Comparison of the polarimetric signatures indicate relatively higher contribution from diffuse scatterers on the thawed day than on the frozen day. The sensitivity of the polarimetric signatures to changing environmental conditions is clearly demonstrated.
ISSN:0196-2892