On the Effect of the Number and Distributuion of Acquisitions in L-band SAR Tomography for Forest Structure Estimation.

Abstract

Synthetic Aperture Radar Tomography techniques provide 3D information of the forest due to the ability of microwaves to penetrate through vegetation. Recent studies link the radar 3D information to forest 3D structure in order to translate the tomographic results to an ecological interpretation. However, due to the undersampled nature of tomographic acquisitions, the number and distribution of acquisitions can change the estimated 3D radar reflectivity and as a consequence the forest structure estimates. This paper explores the results for radar as well as for forest structure for different number and distribution of acquisitions in order to analyse the potential and limitations of the estimation of forest structure in future space borne scenarios where the number and distribution of acquisitions will be suboptimal. In this context, the paper analyses a tomographic campaign of 15 tracks acquired over Traunstein (Germany) in 2017 together with ground measurements and Lidar