Tropical Forest Height Retrieval Based on P-Band Multibaseline SAR Data

In this letter, we present an experimental assessment of vegetation height retrieval in tropical forests based on P-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) acquisitions. Two approaches are implemented and compared: 1) parametric height estimation by minimizing the least-square problem between random volume over ground (RVoG) model predictions and multibaseline SAR data and 2) thresholding the vertical backscattering profiles that are focused by SAR Beam-forming tomography. The data set under analysis is from the ESA AfriSAR campaign that was flown over Gabon in 2016. Results show that at a resolution of $25~\text{m}\times 25~\text{m}$ , which corresponds to about 80 independent looks, both of the two approaches are able to retrieve forest height to within an accuracy of about 3 m or better over the interval of forest height between 30 and 50 m when compared to Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) measurements.