Multiscale Forest Structure Estimation from SAR Tomography

Abstract

Recently a framework for forest structure based on TomoSAR data has been defined. Based on the spatial distribution of the reflectivity peaks, two complementary descriptors are evaluated at a given scale. This paper high- lights the dependence of the structure estimate on scale and shows, through analysis on real and simulated data that the restriction to one single scale does not always ensure a complete characterization of structure. As a consequence, a multiscale framework, accounting for the evolution of the estimated structure across scales is suggested for a better forest structure assessment. Furthermore, the effect of system resolution on the accuracy of the estimation is quantified and thus system requirements for forest applications are determined.