Estimation of aboveground woody biomass using HJ-1 and Radarsat-2 data for deciduous forests in Daxing'anling, China

Abstract

Accurate estimation of forest aboveground biomass is important for global carbon budgets and ecosystem change studies. Most algorithms for regional or global aboveground biomass estimation using optical and microwave remote sensing data are based on empirical regression and non-parametric training methods, which require large amount of ground measurements for training and are lacking of explicit interaction mechanisms between electromagnetic wave and vegetation. In this study, we proposed an optical/microwave synergy method based on a coherent polarimetric SAR model to estimate woody biomass. The study area is sparse deciduous forest dominated by birch with understory of shrubs and herbs in Daxing’anling, China. HJ-1, Radarsat-2 images, and field LAI were collected during May to August in 2013, tree biophysical parameters were measured at the field campaign during August to September in 2012. The effects of understory and wet ground were evaluated by introducing the NDVI derived from HJ-1 image and rain rate. Field measured LAI was used as an input to the SAR model to define the scattering and attenuation of the green canopy to the total backscatter. Finally, an logarithmic equation between the backscatter coefficient of direct forest scattering mechanism and woody biomass was generated (R2=0.582). The retrieval results were validated with the ground biomass measurements (RMSE=29.01ton/ha). The results indicated the synergy of optical and microwave remote sensing data based on SAR model has the potential to improve the accuracy of woody biomass estimation.