Height Estimation and 3-D Structure Observation of African Tropical Forests With Multi-Baseline SAR: Results From the AfriSAR Campaign

Abstract

AfriSAR is an ESA-funded airborne P-band SAR campaign over the African tropical forests of Gabon that has been carried out by ONERA (July 2015) and DLR (February 2016) in support of the development of the geophysical algorithms of the future BIOMASS mission. In addition, DLR has complemented the P-band data set with an L-band one over the same sites with optimized multiple baselines. Both data sets are constituted by properly designed multibaseline fully polarimetric acquisitions allowing the inversion of key forest vertical structure-based parameters, like e.g. forest height and high resolution reflectivity profiles. Results of data processing and parameter inversion are shown in this paper at both P- and L-band.