Backscatter and interferometry for estimating above-ground biomass intropical savanna woodland

Tropical savannas cover 15% of the Earth's land surface and are important ecosystems in the global Carbon cycle due to their high productivity. SAR interferometry and backscatter are investigated for estimating biomass in a tropical savanna in Belize, Central America. Single-pass InSAR data used are C-band (AIRSAR) and X-band (Intermap); SAR backscatter data used are fully polarimetric L and P band (AIRSAR). Results show that both C-band and X-band InSAR show a clear trend in vegetation patterns although both underestimate vegetation heights due to the heterogeneity of the vegetation cover. The scattering phase centre is lowered more for the X-band due to larger ground-level contribution. High P and L-band backscatter values are observed for areas containing high biomass vegetation, but also for leafy palmetto that have relatively low biomass.