Polarimetric Surface Scattering Model for Surface Parameter Inversion

Abstract

The sensitivity of microwave scattering to the dielectric properties and the geometrical structure of bare soil surfaces makes radar remote sensing a challenge for a wide range of environmental issues related to the condition of natural surfaces. Polarimetry plays an important role as it allows a direct or indirect separation of surface parameters, namely the volumetric soil moisture content and the geometrical surface properties [1,2]. The aim of this study is to investigate two different distributions used for the description of rough surfaces in order to extend the validity range of the Small Perturbation Model. The first approach considered a uniform distribution of angles corresponding to a certain surface roughness range, taking only the rms height into account [3,4]. The still opening question is the influence of the surface correlation length on the quantitative estimation of surface parameters which will be addressed in this study. For the investigation we chose a Gaussian and a Fractional Brownian Motion distribution which are accounting for the surface correlation length.