Bioclimate envelope models: what they detect and what they hide - response to Hampe (2004)

The main limitation in the application of spaceborne SAR to large-scale forest biomass mapping is the variability in canopy structure and vegetation density. Polarimetric SAR interferometry (PolInSAR) potentially offers a means of improving SAR-based estimates of forest biomass by quantifying canopy structural variability. The polarisation information is dependent on the scattering mechanisms, and the interferometric information can be used to determine the vertical location of these scattering events in the canopy. The CORSAR project (Carbon Observation and Retrieval from SAR), which is supported by the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), has the objective to examine polarimetric decomposition and polarimetric SAR interferometry methods for estimating the effects of canopy structure in biomass-backscatter relationships. We present results from single-pass X-band interferometry and from the polarimetric coherence optimisation of repeatpassL-band E-SAR data acquired during the SAR and Hyperspectral Airborne Campaign (SHAC 2000), and compare the InSAR DEM’s with a LIDAR derived DEM that was acquired concurrently. Four approaches to carbon accounting using SAR and LIDAR remote sensing are discussed. Remotely sensed maps of vegetation carbon pools are presented