Polarimetric UHF Calibration for SETHI

IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sensing

Toan

Daniel

et al. 2012

106

The TropiSAR campaign has been conducted in August 2009 in French Guiana with the ONERA airborne radar system SETHI. The main objective of this campaign was to collect data to support the Phase A of the 7th Earth Explorer candidate mission, BIOMASS. Several specific questions needed to be addressed to consolidate the mission concept following the Phase 0 studies, and the data collection strategy was constructed accordingly. More specifically, a tropical forest data set was required in order to provide test data for the evaluation of the foreseen inversion algorithms and data products. The paper provides a description of the resulting data set which is now available through the European Space Agency website under the airborne campaign link. First results from the TropiSAR database analysis are presented with two in-depth analyses about both the temporal radiometric variation and temporal coherence at P-band. The temporal variations of the backscatter values are less than 0.5 dB throughout the campaign, and the coherence values are observed to stay high even after 22 days. These results are essential for the BIOMASS mission. The observed temporal stability of the backscatter is a good indicator of the expected robustness of the biomass estimation in tropical forests, from cross-polarized backscatter values as regarding environmental changes such as soil moisture. The high temporal coherence observed after a 22-day period is a prerequisite for SAR Polarimetric Interferometry and Tomographic applications in a single satellite configuration. The conclusion then summarizes the paper and identifies the next steps in the analysis.

Section: B Processing and Calibrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As a consequence, the interferometric phase information and the radiometry are not disturbed by this correction. A detailed description of this process can be found in [18].…”

Section: B Processing and Calibrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The TropiSAR Airborne Campaign in French Guiana: Objectives, Description, and Observed Temporal Behavior of the Backscatter Signal

IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sensing

Toan

Daniel

et al. 2012

106

“…The following baselines were flown: zero-baseline (temporal decorellation analysis), 50ft, 100ft, 150ft, 200ft and 250ft. The data was processed and calibrated following the procedure is described in [5]. The resulting data quality parameters for the P-Band data are the following: NE sigma0 better than -30dB and cross-talk better than -25dB.…”

Section: The Campaign Acquisitionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

TropiSAR: Exploring the temporal behavior of P-Band SAR data

2010 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium

Oriot

Coulombeix

et al. 2010

Self Cite

The TropiSAR campaign has been conducted in August 2009 in French Guiana with the ONERA airborne system SETHI. The main objective of this campaign was to collect data to support the Phase A of the Earth Explorer candidate mission, Biomass. Several specific questions need to be addressed to answer the recommendations of the ESAC group and the data collection strategy has been constructed accordingly. The first part of the paper lists these specific questions. We then describe the selected test sites, followed by a summary on the radar instrument and the radar configuration (geometry and waveform).The data acquisition plan is provided and the temporal behaviour of the P-Band data is explored.

“…The off-line high quality SAR image processing has been completed, including radiometric calibration and geocoding in the geodetic datum WGS84 [12][13]. Work on transforming the SAR images into the UTM (Universal Transverse Mercator) projection are in progress.…”

Section: Sar Mappingmentioning

confidence: 99%

BIOSAR 2010 - A SAR campaign in support to the BIOMASS mission

Ulander

Gustavsson

2011 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium

et al. 2011

Self Cite

The ESA funded campaign BioSAR 2010 was carried out at the forestry test site Remningstorp in southern Sweden, in support to the BIOMASS satellite mission under study. Fully polarimetric SAR data were successfully acquired at Land P-band using ONERA's multi-frequency system SETHI. In addition with other data types gathered, e.g. LiDAR and in-situ measurements, the compiled data set will be used for analyses and comparisons with biomass estimation results obtained at the same test site in the campaign BioSAR 2007, in which DLR's E-SAR made the SAR imaging. Detection of forest changes, robustness of biomass retrieval algorithms and long-term P-band coherence will be in focus as well as cross-validations between the two SAR sensors.