C-Band Radiometric Response to Rainfall Events in the Subtropical Chaco Forest
IEEE GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING LETTERS, VOL. 9, NO. 2, MARCH 2012
In this letter, multitemporal signatures collected by Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E) over the dry forest of Chaco, located in North Argentina, are analyzed. The forest has a biomass of about 100 t/ha and a woody volume of about 120m^3/ha. A clear increase of polarization index at C-band is observed after intense rain events in two different locations.
Simulations of a discrete model attribute this effect to variations of soil moisture and predict an effect comparable with the measured one. Results indicate that there is a potential to monitor soil moisture variations below dry forests with moderate biomass, also in view of the forthcoming availability of L-band data.