Study of the Possibilities of H-α Decomposition for Double Polarization in Radar Monitoring of Afforestation

An estimate of the processes of afforestation and forest restoration after fires is relevant for a significant territory of Russia, including due to the issue of carbon neutrality. In this paper we examine the possibilities of radar monitoring of the afforestation process based on the Cloude-Pottier decomposition of dual-polarization L-band data time series. Preliminary segmentation is performed based on the minimal radar backscatter values for the entire observation period. This makes it possible to separate into a separate class treeless areas and open forests, both those that existed before the beginning of the study and those that formed later. Next, polarimetric decomposition is performed by the Cloude-Pottier method to obtain parameters H (entropy) and alpha (scattering angle) and form time series from them. Research showed the fundamental possibility of monitoring forest dynamics on the H-alpha plane, where the points of the test plots form characteristic time tracks. A mature dense forest, the characteristics of which are assumed to be constant, was used as a reference for estimating the rate of change on the H-alpha plane.