ANALYSIS OF THEORETICAL SURFACE SCATTERING MODELS FOR POLARIMETRIC MICROWAVE REMOTE-SENSING OF BARE SOILS

During the MAESTRO 1 Campaign, multi-frequency polarimetric SAR data w ere acquired over the Dutch site 'Flevoland'. At the same time, an ext ensive ground data collection took place in order to measure several d ifferent bio- and geophysical parameters for bare soils. The SAR data are used to assess the performance of several theoretical surface scat tering models for rough surfaces. These models are extended in order t o yield all the elements of the covariance matrix, particularly the ph ase and the correlation factor between the HH and VV channels. Using t he ground data, input elements such as the soil permittivity and the s urface roughness are fed into the models to compute the elements of th e covariance matrix. A comparison for L and C band between the theoret ical predictions and the measured backscattering coefficients is then presented and clearly shows that the models predict in a satisfactory manner the elements of the covariance matrix.