Experimental study on radar backscatterer from a simplified forest model

Polarimetric radar has a potential ability to retrieve forest parameters such as the moisture content and the biomass. Accurate retrieval of those parameters is the key to understand forest ecosystem and to prevent global climate change. For those purposes, this research aims to establish a quantitative approach to the forest parameter retrieval using polarimetric radar. To achieve this, we need a scattering model which describes scattering from forested terrain. The scattering mechanism has been extensively investigated, and several scattering models have been proposed. Although those models are validated with a field experiment, difficulties arise because those models require many input parameters which are difficult to measure accurately over widespread area. Therefore, a relatively simple scattering model is necessary, and carefully controlled experiment is essential to validate the model. In this research, we employ the discrete scatterer model (DSM) described in [1] as the forest scattering model. Using this model, we pointed out that fully polarimetric observation has the potential ability to retrieve the moisture content of forested terrain [2]. This paper aims to prove this theoretical result through an indoor fully polarimetric measurement.