Experimental modeling the millimeter wave scattering from vegetation canopy

In the paper we present the results of experimental modeling the millimeter wave scattering from elements and fragments of a vegetation canopy. The dependence of amplitude and phase distributions of scattered field in near zone, of back-scattering cross section, and of scattered field distribution in Frenel zone for a fragment of wheat shoots upon the moisture and shape of an individual element is determined.     

Modeling the gap probability of a discontinuous vegetation canopy

A model is presented for the gap probability of a discontinuous vegetation canopy, such as forest, savanna, or shrubland. The case in which the distribution of individual canopy sizes and shapes is known and individual canopies are randomly distributed but do not overlap, and the case in which the canopies to intersect and/or overlap such that foliage density remains constant with the overlap area are both considered, although an exact solution is provided only for the latter. A comparison of modeled gap probabilities with observed gap probabilities for a Maryland (US) pine stand (as taken from the literature) shows good agreement for zenith angles of illumination up to about 45°. Above 45°, the fit worsens, presumably because the horizontal branch structure of the pine canopy is less attenuating as the illumination angle approaches the horizon     

Radar altimeter mean return waveforms from near-normal-incidence ocean surface scattering

Under assumptions common in radar altimetry, the mean backscattered return power for a short-pulse radar and near-normal-incidence scattering from a rough ocean surface is given by the convolution of several terms. For a nearly Gaussian transmitted pulse shape scattered from a nearly Gaussian distributed sea surface, a small-argument series expansion of one of the terms within the convolution leads to a several-term power series expansion for the mean return waveform. Specific expressions are given for the first four terms. These results, which require much less computer time than would the otherwise necessary numerical convolution, are useful for data analysis from current or past radar altimeters and for design studies of future systems. Several representative results are presented for an idealized SEASAT radar altimeter.     

Dependence of attenuation in a vegetation canopy on frequency andplant water content

Theory is presented to provide insight into the observation that attenuation through vegetation is proportional to vegetation water content. In this analysis, the canopy is modeled as a sparse layer of randomly oriented particles (leaves, stalks, etc.) over a flat, homogeneous ground plane (soil) and an expression is obtained for the “optical depth”. The formulas developed by Ulaby and El Rayes are used to relate this expression to the water content of the canopy. In the low frequency extreme (Rayleigh scatterers), the attenuation varies almost linearly with water content and inversely with wavelength. In contrast, in the high frequency limit, the attenuation is independent of both water content and frequency, in between, geometry dependent “resonances” occur even at the low frequency end of the microwave spectrum (e.g. L-band) making the dependence of attenuation on frequency and water content specific to canopy architecture     

The application of a geometric optical canopy reflectance model tosemiarid shrub vegetation

The Li-Strahler (1985) canopy model was tested, using SPOT HRV XS imagery, for semiarid shrub vegetation, based on 26 small (1-ha) sites in five classes of shrub vegetation, two dominated by tarbush, one by creosote bush, and two by mesquite. The model was driven by reflectance values derived from June and September imagery. While predictions of crown size and density for individual sites had a large average error of 35%, the predictions of shrub size and density were reasonably accurate when grouped by shrub class. The aggregated predictions for a number of stands within a class were accurate to within one or two standard errors of the observed average value. Accuracy was highest but predictions were biased for some classes (size was underestimated) when the nonrandom shrub pattern was characterized for the class based on the average coefficient of determination of density     

Invertible canopy reflectance modeling of vegetation structure insemiarid woodland

The Li-Strahler canopy reflectance model, driven by Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) data, provided regional estimates of tree size and density in two bioclimatic zones in West Africa. This model exploits tree geometry in an inversion technique to predict average tree size and density from reflectance data using a few simple parameters measured in the field (spatial pattern, shape, and size distribution of trees) and in the imagery (spectral signatures of scene components). The model was tested in sparse woodland and wooded grassland in the Sahelian and Sudanian bioclimatic zones in West Africa     

Bidirectional NDVI and atmospherically resistant BRDF inversion for vegetation canopy

The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) has been widely applied in optical remote sensing. However, it has been demonstrated that NDVI is still partially affected by atmospheric path scattering and bidirectional (illumination and viewing geometry) effects. In this paper we present the benefit of using a bidirectional NDVI, and we discuss the problems in using the maximum NDVI composite method. Based on the assumption that a clear day has a larger NDVI value and a cloudy day has a smaller NDVI value (smaller reflectance in the near-infrared band and larger reflectance in red band due to atmospheric path scattering), the ratio of squared observed NDVI values and calculated NDVI values is used as a weight in our inversion method. The calculated NDVI values are derived from previously inverted bidirectional reflectance distribution functions (BRDFs). The inversion process will loop until all weights converge. Our research on the early Terra/MODIS data using a semiempirical kernel-driven BRDF model (the RossThick-LiTransit model) shows that this new method can improve inversion results whenever some cloudy pixels are not filtered out. As cloud detection and subpixel cloudiness are always a problem, this technique should still be very useful in improving the quality of BRDF inversion.     

Electromagnetic wave scattering from a forest or vegetation canopy:ongoing research at the University of Texas at Arlington

A scattering model for forest or vegetation, based on the theory of electromagnetic wave scattering in random media, is described. The model generalizes the assumptions imposed by earlier models, and the results compare well with measurements from several forest canopies. It is shown how the model elements are integrated to obtain the scattering characteristics of different forest canopies. The scattering characteristics may be displayed in the form of polarimetric signatures, represented by like- and cross-polarized scattering coefficients, for an elliptically polarized wave, or in the form of signal distribution curves. Results illustrating both types of scattering characteristics are given     

非均匀植被地表散射的Monte Carlo数值模拟与实验观测

用Monte Carlo方法数值模拟电磁波在非均匀植被地表和目标的多次散射,得到随散射计空间移动观测下进而均匀植被地表的散射模拟结果,并与X波段散射计辐射计组合系统的观测试验的测量结果作了对比。     

Retrievals of underlying surface roughness and moisture from polarimetric pulse echoes in the specular direction through stratified vegetation canopy

The time-dependent Mueller matrix solution of vector radiative transfer for stratified random media of nonspherical scatterers is presented. Copolarized and cross-polarized bistatic scattering for a polarized pulse incidence are numerically simulated. Numerical results well demonstrate volumetric and surface scattering mechanism and depict the fraction distribution of random scatterers of stratified random media. The peak tails in polarized echoes due to wave reflections from the underlying surface can be identified. Its copolarized peaks in the specular direction are employed for simultaneous retrievals of the underlying surface roughness and moisture with the presence of stratified vegetation canopy.     

Radar response to vegetation II: 8-18 GHz band

The results of experimental studies on the backscattering properties of corn, milo, soybeans, and alfalfa are presented. The measurements were made during the summer of 1973 over the 8-18 GHz frequency band. The data indicate that soil moisture estimation is best accomplished at incidence angles near nadir with lower frequencies while crop discrimination is best accomplished using two frequencies at incidence angles ranging from30degto65deg. It is also shown that temporal plant morphology variations can cause extreme variations in the values of the scattering coefficients. These morphological changes can be caused by growth, heavy rain, and in the case of alfalfa, harvesting.     

三维非均匀散射层与其中异常目标的辐射传输

讨论了三维非均匀散射层与其中有异常目标的矢量辐射传输高阶散射与辐射的求解与数值模拟.将三维非均匀散射介质在垂直方位z轴方向划分成许多薄层,再在水平(x,y)方位上划分成方格,用分割形成的各薄盒的零阶热辐射和一阶Mueller矩阵解,推导多阶辐射传输的迭代方法,获得整个散射介质三维VRT方程的高阶散射与辐射解.模拟了微波频段在各空间分辨率的辐射计观测下非均匀植被层和地面上有异常目标的极化辐射亮度温度的观测图像.     

Clutter return from vegetated areas

An analytical stochastic model to predict relevant statistical scattering features of electromagnetic waves propagating within vegetated environments is presented. The propagation phenomena are described by formulating the scattering associated with random permittivity fluctuations superimposed on a lossy deterministic background slab. The distorted wave Born approximation is employed to determine the backscattered power, and its temporal spectrum.     

Radar backscatter from a dense discrete random medium

A dense medium phase matrix developed based on the concept of random lattice perturbation is employed in the radiative transfer theory to calculate the coand cross-polarized backscatter from a layer of randomly distributed spherical scatterers. The position randomness properties are characterized by the variance and correlation function of scatterer positions within the medium. The dense medium phase matrix differs from the conventional one in two major aspects, i.e., there is an amplitude and a phase correction. These corrections account for the effects of close spacing and position correlation between scatterers in a dense discrete random medium. This study shows that phase coherency and close-spacing amplitude modifications are two separate corrections necessary for an electrically dense medium. Results indicate that there is a need to distinguish between spatially and electrically dense medium. The phase correction is found to have a greater impact on cross-polarized than like-polarized backscatter coefficients; the converse is true of the amplitude correction. Backscattering calculations from the theory are compared with measurements from controlled microwave experiments on random media consisting of closely packed spheres, and from field measurements of dry snowpack. Predictions from such a theory agree well with the measured data     

Radar target discrimination by convolution of radar return with extinction-pulses and single-mode extraction signals

A new method of radar target discrimination and identification is presented. This new method is based on the natural frequencies of the target. It consists of synthesizing aspect-independent discriminant signals, called extinction-pulses (E-pulses) and single-mode extraction signals which, when convolved numerically with the late-time transient response of an expected target, lead to zero or single-mode responses. When the synthesized, discriminant signals for an expected target are convolved with the radar return from a different target, the resulting signal will be significantly different from the expected zero or single-mode responses, thus, the differing targets can be discriminated. Theoretical synthesis of discriminant signals from known target natural frequencies and experimental synthesis of them for a complex target from its measured pulse response are presented. The scheme has been tested with measured responses of various targets in the laboratory.     

Geometric-optical bidirectional reflectance modeling of thediscrete crown vegetation canopy: effect of crown shape and mutualshadowing

In the case where a vegetation cover can be regarded as a collection of individual, discrete plant crowns, the geometric-optical effects of the shadows that the crowns cast on the background and on one another strongly condition the brightness of the vegetation cover as seen from a given viewpoint in the hemisphere. An asymmetric hotspot, in which the shape of the hotspot is related to the shape of the plant crowns in the scene, is created. At large zenith angles illumination shadows will preferentially shadow the lower portions of adjacent crowns. Further, these shadows will be preferentially obscured since adjacent crowns will also tend to obscure the lower portions of other crowns. This effect produces a `bowl-shaped' bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) in which the scene brightness increases at the function's edges. Formulas describing the hotspot and mutual-shadowing effects are derived, and examples that show how the shape of the BRDF is dependent on the shape of the crowns, their density, their brightness relative to the background, and the thickness of the layer throughout which the crown centers are distributed are presented     

Forest canopy closure from classification and spectral unmixing ofscene components-multisensor evaluation of an open canopy

Three types of remote sensing data, color infrared aerial photography (CIR), compact airborne spectrographic imager (CASI) imagery, and airborne visible/infrared imaging spectrometer (AVIRIS) imagery, have been used to estimate forest canopy closure for an open-canopy forest environment. The high-spatial-resolution CIR and CASI images were classified to generate forest canopy closure estimates. These estimates were used to validate the forest canopy closure estimation accuracy obtained using the AVIRIS image. Reflectance spectra extracted from the spectral-mode CASI image were used to normalize the raw AVIRIS image to a reflectance image. Classification and spectral unmixing methods have been applied to the AVIRIS image. Results indicate that both the classification and the spectral unmixing methods can produce reasonably accurate estimates of forest canopy closure (within 3 percent agreement) when related statistics are extracted from the AVIRIS image and relatively pure reflectance spectra are extracted from the CASI image. However, it is more challenging to use the spectral unmixing technique to derive subpixel-scale components whose reflectance spectra cannot be directly extracted from the AVIRIS image     

Radar Scattering from a Diffuse Vegetation Layer over a Smooth Surface

A simple model is presented for the oblique backscatter and bistatic scatter from a smooth surface overlain by a diffuse layer. Only single scattering in the diffuse layer is taken into account. The model analysis shows that the combination of volume scattering and oblique reflection at the surface may increase appreciably the waves scattering. The scattering strongly depends on the properties of the smooth surface. These results support some of the observations made with the Seasat spaceborne imaging radar over flooded regions with heavy vegetation cover.     

The role of canopy structure in the spectral variation oftransmission and absorption of solar radiation in vegetation canopies

This paper presents empirical and theoretical analyses of spectral hemispherical reflectances and transmittances of individual leaves and the entire canopy sampled at two sites representative of equatorial rainforests and temperate coniferous forests. The empirical analysis indicates that some simple algebraic combinations of leaf and canopy spectral transmittances and reflectances eliminate their dependencies on wavelength through the specification of two canopy-specific wavelength-independent variables. These variables and leaf optical properties govern the energy conservation in vegetation canopies at any given wavelength of the solar spectrum. The presented theoretical development indicates these canopy-specific wavelength-independent variables characterize the capacity of the canopy to intercept and transmit solar radiation under two extreme situations, namely, when individual leaves 1) are completely absorptive and 2) totally reflect and/or transmit the incident radiation. The interactions of photons with the canopy at red and near-infrared (IR) spectral bands approximate these extreme situations well. One can treat the vegetation canopy as a dynamical system and the canopy spectral interception and transmission as dynamical variables. The system has two independent states: canopies with totally absorbing and totally scattering leaves. Intermediate states are a superposition of these pure states. Such an interpretation provides powerful means to accurately specify changes in canopy structure both from ground-based measurements and remotely sensed data. This concept underlies the operational algorithm of global leaf area index (LAI), and the fraction of photosynthetically active radiation absorbed by vegetation developed for the moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) and multiangle imaging spectroradiometer (MISR) instruments of the Earth Observing System (EOS) Terra mission