Assessment Of The Ground Polarimetry In Crops Estimated Using Mb Sar Interferometry At C-Band

In this paper, polarimetric multi-baseline (MB) Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Interferometry data are used to estimate the polarimetric ground component under vegetation. However, the solution of the applied separation algorithm is not unique and depends on the constraints in the regularization. First, the effect of this non-uniqueness is analyzed and then exploited to isolate a ground component with minimized influence of depolarizing scattering mechanisms Using experimental MB SAR data acquired by DLR's airborne sensor F-SAR, the polarimetric entropy and mean alpha angle of the isolated ground component are compared to the original polarimetry of the full image. Finally, the ground polarimetry is interpreted for changing soil moisture vegetation conditions in corn. To this purpose, three dates are compared characterized by 1) a change in soil moisture, 2) a change in vegetation cover or 3) a simultaneous change of soil moisture and vegetation cover.