CORRELATION ANALYSIS FOR TROPICAL FOREST ABOVE GROUND BIOMASS AND VERTICAL REFLECTIVITY PROFILE

Abstract. Tropical forests play a key role in the carbon cycle and sustainable development and their above ground biomass (AGB) is applied as an quantitative parameter for the research on global carbon cycle and ecological function. Ten-baseline Polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry (PolInSAR) images collected in Mondah, Gabon 4th Feb. 2016 during AfriSAR campaign are applied to extract the vertical scattering coefficient with SAR tomography (TomoSAR). Capon is used to reconstruct the vertical reflectivity profile and then the correlation analysis between backscattering coefficients at special height and the in-situ F-AGB is carried out. The results show that Capon performs well when the perpendicular baseline interval is similar and the vertical reflectivity relates closely with the F-AGB in plot scale.