An Empirical Assessment of Temporal Decorrelation Using the Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar over Forested Landscapes

Remote Sensing

Marc Simard²  Scott Hensley²  Marco Lavalle²  Ralph Dubayah¹  Naiara Pinto¹ 

[1] Department of Geography, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA; E-Mails:;Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Dr., Pasadena, CA 91109, USA; E-Mails:

关键词: radar;    forest;    height;    interferometry;    temporal decorrelation;    repeat-pass;    PolinSAR;   

DOI  :  10.3390/rs4040975

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

We present an empirical assessment of the impact of temporal decorrelation on interferometric coherence measured over a forested landscape. A series of repeat-pass interferometric radar images with a zero spatial baseline were collected with UAVSAR (Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar), a fully polarimetric airborne L-band radar system. The dataset provided temporal separations of 45 minutes, 2, 7 and 9 days. Coincident airborne lidar and weather data were collected. We theoretically demonstrate that UAVSAR measurement accuracy enables accurate quantification of temporal decorrelation. Data analysis revealed precipitation events to be the main driver of temporal decorrelation over the acquisition period. The experiment also shows temporal decorrelation increases with canopy height, and this pattern was found consistent across forest types and polarization.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2012 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.