Forest covers about 30% of earth surface, which plays an important role in global forecast and carbon cycle. Monitoring forest biomass, and retrieving soil moisture at forest area, are the main goals of most passive microwave sensors on satellite missions. L-band is the most sensitive frequency among all the frequencies due to its good penetration ability. Because of its variety of the size of scattering components, the complicated structures and species of forest, it is difficult to describe the scattering and attenuation characters of forest in modeling microwave emission at forest area. In this paper, we studied the emissivity and transmissivity of deciduous forest at L(1.4GHz) by model simulation and field experiment. The microwave emission model was based on Matrix-Doubling algorithm. The comparison between simulated emissivity and measured data collected during an experiment at Maryland, USA in 2007 was good. Since theoretical model like Matrix-Doubling is too complicated to be used in retrial application, we mapped the results of Matrix-Doubling to a simple 0th-order model, also called ω-τ model, by setting the simulated emissivity to be the emissivity of 0th-order model at the same environment, which 2 unknown variables---opacity τ and effective single scattering albedo ω need to be determined. To valited τ (transmissivity of forest) simulated by Matrix-Doubling, we took an deciduous forest experiment by an L band microwave radiometer under trees at JingYueTan area, Changchun, Jilin Province in April to June in 2014. Thus the ω of forest can be determined. The matching results are presented in this paper. The relationship between LAI and forest microwave characters are discussed.

Date Published: 8 November 2014
PDF: 9 pages
Proc. SPIE 9260, Land Surface Remote Sensing II, 92601O (8 November 2014); doi: 10.1117/12.2068855

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9260:
Land Surface Remote Sensing II
Thomas J. Jackson; Jing Ming Chen; Peng Gong; Shunlin Liang, Editor(s)