Characterization of Microwave Polarimetric Backscattering from Grasslanlds Using the Radiative Transfer Theory

Microwave polarimetric backscattering from a various types of grassland canopies has been analyzed by using the first-order radiative transfer theory in this paper. Leaves in the grassland are modeled by rectangular resistive sheets, which sizes (widths and lengths) and orientations (elevation and azimuth angles) are randomly distributed. Surface roughness and soil moisture of the ground plane under the grass canopy is considered in this computation. The backscattering coefficients of grasslands are computed for different radar parameters (angles, frequencies and Polarizations) as well as different canopy Parameters (size and orientation distributions of leaves, canopy depth, moisture contents of leaves and soil, rms height and correlation length of soil surface). A radar system for 15GHz has been fabricated and used for measurement of the scattering coefficient from a grass canopy. The computation result obtained by the scattering model for the grass canopy is compared with the measurements.