Sentinel-1 Coherence for Mapping Above-Ground Biomass in Semiarid Forest Areas

The interferometric coherence of repeat-pass C-band synthetic aperture radar observations has shown potential for mapping forest above-ground biomass (AGB) when images were acquired with short temporal repeat intervals and under stable environmental conditions. Since 2014, Sentinel-1 collects repeated interferometric image pairs at global scale with repeat intervals of 6 or 12 days. For a semiarid forest site in California, we evaluated one year of Sentinel-1 6- and 12-day (60 and 59 images, respectively) repeat-pass coherence images with the objective of retrieving AGB. The retrieval was performed by inverting the semiempirical Interferometric Water Cloud Model. The retrieval based on individual coherence images was most accurate (similar to 50% relative root-mean-square difference with respect to a Lidar-derived map) when images were acquired in extended periods of dry conditions. The retrieval accuracy improved by approximately 15% units when combining multiple coherence images in the retrieval. Finally, the accuracy of the retrieval with multitemporal 6- or 12-day repeat-pass coherence images differed by only 2% units. The results of this study advocate consideration of Sentinel-1 repeat-pass coherence in AGB mapping efforts in semiarid forest areas.

Automated summary

This study found that the accuracy of biomass retrieval using Sentinel-1 repeat-pass coherence images is highest when images are acquired in extended periods of dry conditions, and can be improved by combining multiple images. The difference in retrieval accuracy between multitemporal 6- and 12-day repeat-pass coherence images is minimal, suggesting that both intervals are suitable for AGB mapping in semiarid forest areas.