Victor Cazcarra-Bes

Structural classification of forest by means of L-band tomographic SAR

Synthetic Aperture Radar Tomography provides the 3D reflectivity of the observed scene. Hence, in a forest scenario, it reflects information relevant to forest structure. However, how and to which extent this information is reflected and which are possible ways to quantify it are still open questions. This paper explores the link between ecological measures of forest structure and the 3D spatial distribution of the peaks in the reflectivity profiles at L-band and, with this, proposes measures for forest structure estimation from tomographic SAR data.

Assessment of forest structure estimation by means of SAR Tomography: Potential and limitations

Systems based on Synthetic Aperture Radar Tomography at low frequencies offer 3D imaging capabilities, appropriate for forest monitoring. However the extraction of an ecologically meaningful measure of forest structure from the 3D reflectivity is not straightforward and several considerations need to be carefully taken into account, in order to avoid misinterpretations of the nature of the information reflected in the tomograms. Besides, it should be noted that the methodology employed in the TomoSAR inversion has a significant effect on the overall performance of the TomoSAR system to estimate forest structure. In this framework, this paper discusses the potential and limitations of TomoSAR systems for forest structure estimation.