@Article{NeeffDutrSantFrei:2005:TrFoBi,
               author = "Neeff, Till and Dutra, Luciano Vieira and Santos, Jo{\~a}o 
                         Roberto dos and Freitas, Corina Costa",
          affiliation = "University of California, Berkeley, CA, United States; University 
                         of Freiburg, Biometry Department, Tennenbacher Strasse 4, 79085 
                         Freiburg Brsg., Germany",
                title = "Tropical forest biomass measurement by interferometric height 
                         modeling and P-band radar backscatter",
              journal = "Forest Science",
                 year = "2005",
               volume = "51",
               number = "6",
                pages = "585--593",
             keywords = "Amazon, P-band, backscatter saturation, biomass, environmental 
                         management, forest, forest height, forest management, forest 
                         resources, forestry, forestry research, forestry science, 
                         interferometric height, natural resource management, natural 
                         resources, radar.",
             abstract = "A new approach to tropical forest biomass monitoring with airborne 
                         interferometric X and P-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data 
                         is presented. Forest height, basal area, and aboveground biomass 
                         are modeled from remote sensing data for a study site in the 
                         Brazilian Amazon. Radar data quality has improved: A novel digital 
                         model of vegetation height from X- and P-band interferometry is 
                         available along with the usual P-band backscatter information. The 
                         digital vegetation height model is derived from the 
                         interferometric surface models of the ground (from P-band) and the 
                         forest canopy (from X-band). The difference between the surface 
                         models is called interferometric height, and is used as a measure 
                         of vegetation height. Interferometric height is shown to relate to 
                         a subset of the forest trees that changes according to the forest 
                         successional stages. The suitability of radar backscatter and 
                         interferometric height as a means for forest and biomass 
                         monitoring was explored by relating forest parameters as measured 
                         in the field to remote sensing data. Basal area and biomass were 
                         related to radar backscatter with limited precision of r 2 = 0.19 
                         and r 2 = 0.34, respectively. Mean forest height is shown to 
                         relate to interferometric height with good precision (r 2 = 0.83, 
                         RMSE = 4.1 m). A statistical model for forest biomass as a 
                         function of both P-band backscatter and interferometric height 
                         information not only arrives at high values of precision (with r 2 
                         = 0.89 and a RMSE from cross-validation of only 46.1 t/ha), but 
                         also overcomes the well-known issue of backscatter saturation. 
                         This research shows that tropical forest biomass can be quantified 
                         and mapped over large areas for a range of forest structures with 
                         reasonably tight and similar errors.",
                 issn = "0015-749X",
             language = "en",
        urlaccessdate = "03 maio 2024"
}