Using multiple-polarization L-band radar to monitor marsh burn recovery

Structural Classification of Marshes with Polarimetric SAR Highlighting the Temporal Mapping of Marshes Exposed to Oil

“…Even accounting for background influences, the canopy reflectance as represented in the remote sensing signal reflects the intertwined contributions of the leaf optical properties and plant canopy structure, i.e., density and orientation [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]. Structure information can be purposely incorporated into the classification by fusing radar backscatter and optical image data [13][14][15]. In other cases where the target canopies exhibit largely "full and uniform coverage" or the leaf and structure are considered a combined land class unit, the decoupling of the leaf optical and plant-canopy structure contributions to the canopy reflectance can be of little consequence.…”

“…Although mapping success varies, the advantage of cross polarization backscatter (HV or VH) or cross and like (HH or VV) polarization ratios in explaining density variance is well established (e.g., [13,[37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44]). Less experience exists in applying full polarimetric (PolSAR) information in mapping vegetation density, especially in grassland landscapes; however, some operational mapping applications have utilized the full polarimetric information to account for canopy structural changes in grassland or marsh landscapes [22,[45][46][47][48].…”

Limitations and Potential of Satellite Imagery to Monitor Environmental Response to Coastal Flooding

“…The surge from Hurricane Ike, or the subsequently delayed inland runoff noted at hydrologic sites in palustrine wetlands farther to the west, could have removed much of the dead and damaged plant material, thus reducing canopy density. Collapse of the marsh canopy and its subsequent removal would change the performance value of satellite-based inundation mapping because of the association between canopy structure (density, orientation, and stalk thickness) and SAR responses from flooded and nonflooded marshes (e.g., see Grings et al, 2005;Kasischke et al, 2003;Pope et al, 1997;Ramsey et al, 1999). In order to answer whether or not changes in the canopy structure caused by storm-surge impacts resulted in the noted differences in the performance value of satellite-based inundation mapping, continuing research is focused on how the structural aspects of marsh canopies influence SAR data and how these aspects vary when using L-band SAR versus C-band SAR data.…”

Modeling temporal variations in multipolarized radar scattering from intertidal coastal wetlands

“…This is consistent with the findings of Pampaloni et al (1997), Schmullius andEvans (1997), andOtt et al (1990) that showed Lband data were often more sensitive to plant water content and biomass than C-band. Ramsey et al (1999) found that the structural vegetation changes that accompanied a marsh's recovery from recent burns strongly influenced L-band returns. For this study, the scattering model was used to simulate the SAR responses at L-band to aid in comparison with major environmental units in existing wetland maps.…”