Author(s)

Luong Viet Nguyen^1*, Hieu Van Nguyen¹, Lap Quoc Kieu², Tu Trong To¹, Thanh Kim Thi Phan¹, Tuan Anh Pham¹, Chi Kim Tran¹

¹Space Technology Institute, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, Hanoi, Vietnam.
²Thai Nguyen University of Sciences, Thai Nguyen City, Vietnam.

This research has used the L-band radar from ALOS-2 PALSAR-2 and field work data for evaluation of seasonal effects of backscattering intensity on retrieval forest biomass in the tropics. The effects of seasonality and HH, and HV polarizations of the SAR data on the biomass were analyzed. The dry season HV polarization could explain 61% of the biomass in this study region. The dry season HV backscattering intensity was highly sensitive to the biomass compared to the rainy season backscattering intensity. The SAR data acquired in the rainy season with humid and wet canopies were not very sensitive to the in situ biomass. Strong dependence of the biomass estimates with season of SAR data acquisition confirmed that the choice of right season SAR data is very important for improving the satellite based estimates of the biomass. This research expects that the results obtained in this research will contribute to monitoring of the quantity and quality of forest biomass in Vietnam and other tropical countries.

L-Band SAR, ALOS-2 PALSAR-2, Backscattering Intensity, Tropical Forest Biomass, Vietnam

Nguyen, L. , Nguyen, H. , Kieu, L. , To, T. , Phan, T. , Pham, T. and Tran, C. (2020) Seasonal Effects of Backscattering Intensity of ALOS-2 PALSAR-2 (L-Band) on Retrieval Forest Biomass in the Tropics. Journal of Geoscience and Environment Protection, 8, 26-40. doi: 10.4236/gep.2020.811002.