Forest height estimation methods using polarimetric SAR interferometry

Forest height extraction with polarimetric SAR interferometry (POLInSAR) is a hot research field of imaging SAR remote sensing. Several available forest height inversion methods using POLInSAR data were validated and compared with re- peat pass E-SAR datasets and the corresponding ground measured forest stand height through the analysis of the Random Vol- ume over Ground (RVoG) scattering model. After analyzing the experiment results in the view of physical mechanisms, we de- veloped an integrated inversion method combining interferometric coherence optimization and compensation of non-volumetric scattering decorrelation. Validation result shows that the general performance of the developed forest height inversion method is superior to the others.