Potential of C and X Band SAR for Shrub Growth Monitoring in Sub-Arctic Environments

Remote Sensing

Yannick Duguay¹  Monique Bernier¹  Esther Lévesque²  Benoit Tremblay²  Santonu Goswami³  Daniel J. Hayes³  Guido Grosse³  Benjamin Jones³  Nicolas Baghdadi³ 

[1] Centre Eau Terre Environnement, Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS), 490 de la Couronne, Quebec City, QC G1K 9A9, Canada; E-Mail:;Centre d’études Nordiques, Laval University, Pavillon Abitibi-Price 2405, rue de la Terrasse Local 1202, Quebec City, QC G1V 0A6, Canada;Centre Eau Terre Environnement, Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS), 490 de la Couronne, Quebec City, QC G1K 9A9, Canada; E-Mail

关键词: shrub vegetation;    sub-Arctic environments;    SAR;    RADARSAT-2;    TerraSAR-X;   

DOI  :  10.3390/rs70709410

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

The Arctic and sub-Arctic environments have seen a rapid growth of shrub vegetation at the expense of the Arctic tundra in recent decades. In order to develop better tools to assess and understand this phenomenon, the sensitivity of multi-polarized SAR backscattering at C and X band to shrub density and height is studied under various conditions. RADARSAT-2 and TerraSAR-X images were acquired from November 2011 to March 2012 over the Umiujaq community in northern Quebec (56.55°N, 76.55°W) and compared to in situ measurements of shrub vegetation density and height collected during the summer of 2009. The results show that σ⁰ is sensitive to changes in shrub coverage up to 20% and is sensitive to changes in shrub height up to around 1 m. The cross-polarized backscatteringdisplays the best sensitivity to both shrub height and density, and RADARSAT-2 is more sensitive to shrub height, as TerraSAR-X tends to saturate more rapidly with increasing volume scattering from the shrub branches. These results demonstrate that SAR data could provide essential information, not only on the spatial expansion of shrub vegetation, but also on its vertical growth, especially at early stages of colonization.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland