ADVANCES IN RADAR REMOTE SENSING OF WETLAND ECOSYSTEMS: COMBINATION OF SATELLITE OBSERVATIONS, FIELD DATA AND EM MODELS

HAYDEE KARSZENBAUM; PAOLO FERRAZZOLI; FRANCISCO MATIAS GRINGS; MERCEDES SALVIA; PATRICIA KANDUS; PABLO PERNA

Frascati, Italia

Congreso; GlobWetlnad Symposium; 2006

Agencia Espacial Europea (ESA)

This paper focuses on the results obtained in theanalysis of temporal series of ERS-2, RADARSAT-1SAR and ENVISAT ASAR data acquired over wetlandecosystems of Argentina. The complete data setincludes RADARSAT 1 images of 1997-98 that showan El Niño phenomenon, an ERS 2 temporal setcovering 1999-2000 that shows the effect of burntbiomass and its recovery on the radar signature, and atemporal set of ASAR data which includes imagesacquired under different polarizations and incidenceangles as well as different environmental conditions(water level, precipitation, and vegetation condition).Two marsh species, named junco and cortadera, weremonitored. This overall data set is giving us thepossibility of studying and understanding the basicinteractions between the radar, the soil under differentflood conditions, and the vegetation structure. Thecomprehension of the observed features was addressedthrough EM models development for these ecosystems.