Estimation of forest stem volume using ALOS PALSAR satellite images
Other conference contribution, 2007

A first evaluation of ALOS PALSAR data for forest stem volume estimation has been performed at a coniferous dominated test site in Sweden. In total, 7 Fine Beam Single polarization (FBS, look angle 34.3°, HH-polarization) and 7 Polarimetric (PLR, look angle 21.5°, HH-, HV-, VH-, and VV-polarization) SAR images were used. In total, 56 forest stands with stem volume in the range of 45-650 m3 ha-1 (average 325 m3 ha-1) were analyzed by relating backscatter intensity to field data. The estimation accuracy of stem volume at stand level was calculated in terms of root mean square error (RMSE). For the best case investigated an RMSE of 30% was obtained using one of the FBS images acquired in the winter season. The corre-sponding RMSEs for the PLR images with HH-, HV-, VH-, and VV-polarization were 65%, 65%, 62%, and 81%, respectively. The better results for FBS compared to PLR mode could be explained by particularly favorable weather conditions at image acquisition, or by the higher ground resolution in the FBS images, which makes small stands less sensitive to errors in geo-coding.

stem volume

SAR

ALOS

Author

M. Magnusson

J.E.S. Fransson

Leif Eriksson

Chalmers, Department of Radio and Space Science, Radar Remote Sensing

Gustaf Sandberg

Chalmers, Department of Radio and Space Science, Radar Remote Sensing

Gary Smith Jonforsen

Chalmers, Department of Radio and Space Science, Radar Remote Sensing

Lars Ulander

Chalmers, Department of Radio and Space Science, Radar Remote Sensing

IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS 2007), Barcelona, Spain, July 23-27, 2007

Vol. DOI: 10.1109/IGARSS.2007.4423813 4343-4346

Subject Categories

Agricultural Science

Forest Science

More information

Created

10/7/2017