Polarimetric Parameters for Growing Stock Volume Estimation Using ALOS PALSAR L-Band Data over Siberian Forests

In order to assess the potentiality of ALOS L-band fully polarimetric radar data for forestry applications, we investigated a four-component decomposition method to characterize the polarization response of Siberian forest. The decomposition powers of surface scattering, double-bounce and volume scattering, derived with and without rotation of coherency matrix, were compared with Growing Stock Volume (GSV). To compensate for topographic effects an adaptive rotation of the coherency matrix was accomplished. After the rotation, the correlation between GSV and double-bounce increased significantly. Volume scattering remained same and the surface scattering power decreased slightly. The volume scattering power and double-bounce power increased as the GSV increased, whereas the surface scattering power decreased. In sparse forest, at unfrozen conditions the surface scattering was higher than volume scattering, while volume scattering was dominant in dense forest. The scenario was different at frozen conditions for dense forest where the surface scattering was higher than volume scattering. Moreover, a slight impact of tree species on polarimetric decomposition powers has been observed. Larch was differed from aspen, birch and pine by +2 dB surface scattering power and also by -1.5 dB and -1.2 dB volume scattering power and double-bounce scattering power respectively at unfrozen conditions.