THE POTENTIAL OF MULTIFREQUENCY POLARIMETRIC SAR IN ASSESSING AGRICULTURAL AND ARBOREOUS BIOMASS

Polarimetric radar data collected by AIRSAR and SIR-C over agricultura l fields, forests, and olive groves of the Italian Montespertoli site are analyzed. The objective is to investigate the radar capability in discriminating among various vegetation species and its sensitivity to agricultural and arboreous biomass. Results indicate that a combined use of P (0.45 GHz) and L (1.2 GHz) bands allows one to discriminate b etween agricultural fields and other targets, while a combined use of L and C (5.3 GHz) bands allows us to discriminate within agricultural areas, To monitor biomass, P band gives the best results for forests a nd olive groves, L band appears to be good for crops with low plant de nsity (m(-2)), while for crops with high plant density, both L and C b ands are useful, The availability of crosspolarized data is important for both classification and biomass retrieval.