Study on the forest observation in kushiro wetland by using dual-frequency and fully polarimetric airborne SAR (Pi-SAR) data

We chose the Kushiro wetland in Hokkaido, Japan, as a test site to monitor wetland areas. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) can carry out continuous observation in any weather conditions, and can therefore be used to observe high humidity areas such as wetlands. We applied multi-parameter SAR data (dual-frequency, multi-polarization, and multi-incidence angle) to monitoring the wetland forest. To find the optimum incidence angle and polarization for monitoring the wetland biomass, a simple backscattering model of wetland vegetation was developed and applied to estimate backscattering coefficients for different biomass and surface conditions.