Benchmarking the Retrieval of Biomass in Boreal Forests Using P-Band SAR Backscatter with Multi-Temporal C- and L-Band Observations

The planned launch of a spaceborne P-band radar mission and the availability of C- and L-band data from several spaceborne missions suggest investigating the complementarity of C-, L-, and P-band backscatter with respect to the retrieval of forest above-ground biomass. Existing studies on the retrieval of biomass with multi-frequency backscatter relied on single observations of the backscatter and were thus not able to demonstrate the potential of multi-temporal C- and L-band data that are now available from spaceborne missions. Based on spaceborne C- and L-band and airborne P-band images acquired over a forest site in southern Sweden, we investigated whether C- and L-band backscatter may complement retrievals of above-ground biomass from P-band. To this end, a retrieval framework was adopted that utilizes a semi-empirical model for C- and L-bands and an empirical parametric model for P-band. Estimates of above-ground biomass were validated with the aid of 20 m-diameter plots and a LiDAR-derived biomass map with 100 m x 100 m pixel size. The highest retrieval accuracy when not combining frequencies was obtained for P-band with a relative root mean square error (RMSE) of 30% at the hectare scale. The retrieval with multi-temporal L- and C-bands produced errors of the order of 40% and 50%, respectively. The P-band retrieval could be improved for 4% when using P-, L-, and C-bands jointly. The combination of C- and L-bands allowed for retrieval accuracies close to those achieved with P-band. A crucial requirement for achieving an error of 30% with C- and L-bands was the use of multi-temporal observations, which was highlighted by the fact that the retrieval with the best individual L-band image was associated with an error of 61%. The results of this study reconfirmed that P-band is the most suited frequency for the retrieval of above-ground biomass of boreal forests based on backscatter, but also highlight the potential of multi-temporal C- and L-band imagery for mapping above-ground biomass, for instance in areas where the planned ESA BIOMASS P-band mission will not be allowed to acquire data.