Mapping boreal forest biomass from a SRTM and TanDEM-X based on canopy height model and Landsat spectral indices

•A model to produce large scale forest biomass map spaceborne InSAR and multispectral images.•Forest height was extracted by combining the interferometric height surfaces of TanDEM-X and SRTM.•Combination of forest height obtained from InSAR sensors with multispectral information from optical sensors has improved the accuracy of approaches based on only forest height or intensity/backscatter-biomass for estimating biomass.