Simulated biomass retrieval from the spaceborne tomographic Saocom-CS mission at L-band

This paper presents an evaluation of above-ground biomass (ABG) retrieval in boreal forests using simulated tomographic synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) data corresponding to the future SAOCOM-CS (L-band 1.275 GHz) mission. Using forest and radar data from the BioSAR 2008 campaign at the Krycklan test site in northern Sweden the expected performance of SAOCOM-CS is evaluated and compared with the E-SAR airborne Lband SAR (1.300 GHz). It is found that SAOCOM-CS data produce retrievals on par with those obtained with E-SAR, with retrievals having a relative RMSE of 30% or less. This holds true even if the acquisitions are limited to a single polarization, with HH results shown as an example