Sensitivity of CyGNSS to Above Ground Biomass and Canopy Height over Tropical Forests

An experimental assessment of the performance of Global Navigation Satellite Systems Reflectometry (GNSS-R) for biomass monitoring over tropical forests is presented. Several observables of the so-called Delay Doppler Maps (DDMs), as provided by the Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite Systems (CyGNSS) microsatellites constellation, are evaluated using the pan-tropical Above Ground Biomass (AGB) map provided by Avitabile et al. and Canopy Height (CH) data derived from the Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) lidar-instrument on-board the National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA’s Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite (ICESat). In so doing, different tropical forests types are studied. Preliminary results show that the spreading of the DDMs in the delay domain has a sensitivity up to a mean AGB ~ 325 ton/ha over Congo rainforests for elevation angles in the range e ~ [20, 40] º.© 2019 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works