An Optimized Method to Estimate Forest Height With Compact Polarimetric SAR Interferometry

Inhalt:
In this paper we analyse the possibility of estimating the volume height using compact PolInSAR data. The Random Volume over Ground (RVoG) model has been used to retrieve the canopy height from full PolInSAR data. With compact PolInSAR data, this model can be directly applied but in some cases, the canopy height estimation can be degraded compared to the results obtained by using full PolInSAR data. The data space is reduced in compact polarimetry resulting in a smaller coherence region included in the full polarimetric coherence region. An alternative could be to reconstruct a “pseudo” full PolInSAR matrix but this method requires some assumptions. In this paper, we compare different approaches for the inversion from compact PolInSAR data and evaluate the performance of a compact polarimetric system versus a full polarimetric system. The results over several datasets show that it is possible to estimate the volume height from compact PolInSAR data using an optimized method.