ESTIMATION OF PASTURE BIOMASS AND SOIL-MOISTURE

USING DUAL-POLARIMETRIC X AND L BAND SAR –

ACCURACY ASSESMENT WITH FIELD DATA

Tishampati Dhar[1],Carl Menges[1],John Douglas[1],Michael Schmidt[2],John

Armston[2]

Author affiliation:
Apogee Imaging International
[1]

12B, 1 Adelaide-Lobethal Rd.

Lobethal, SA 5241
Australia
+61-8-8389-5499,+61-8-8389-5488
nextimage@apogee.com.au
[2]
Remote Sensing Centre, Queensland
Department of Environment and Resource Management
80 Meiers Road,
Indooroopilly, Queensland, 4068

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a study conducted to relate X and L band
polarimetric SAR backscatter to pasture soil moisture and biomass as part of
an environmental monitoring program. Extensive field data was collected
concurrently with satellite SAR data acquisition – including dry/wet above
ground biomass, soil moisture, surface roughness profiles and EM-38
electromagnetic sensor data. This data is used for both electromagnetic
modelling of the surface to work out the theoretical backscatter as well as
empirical fitting regression models to the recorded SAR data and validation of
existing inversion models.

Introduction

The work in this paper was carried out in conjunction with Queensland
Department of Environmental and Resource Management. The department has
worked in the past with dual-polarimetric ALOS-PALSAR L-band to ascertain
landcover changes[1].
This study utilised a TerraSAR-X HH/VV dual-polarimetric stripmap image in
conjunction with ALOS-PALSAR HH/HV and fieldwork. The aim is to ascertain
the utility of SAR for rangeland Feed-On-Offer (FOO) estimation.

1
The fieldwork collected provided information regarding the soil moisture and
roughness as well as live and dead biomass cover.
The field work was performed from 2009-09-07 to 2009-09-15 in central parts of
Queensland, between Aramac and Barcaldine in the Mitchell Grass Downs,
specifically the 33 field sites shown in the map in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Field site locations with respect to PALSAR and TSX

scenes

Analysis Techniques

The study performed dual-polarimetric decomposition on the ALOS-PALSAR

data and compared field soil moisture measurements with AMSR-E passive L-
band radiance and ALOS-PALSAR backscatter. The dual-polarimetric entropy-
alpha decomposition was used to isolate areas in the SAR with low-entropy and
alpha angles indicating surface scattering as the dominant backscatter
mechanism.
The backscatter values at the survey points in both PALSAR and TerraSAR-X
are compared at the survey points and over distributed scatterers as indicated
by landcover maps.

Field work details

33 sites were surveyed to quantify the following observables:

2
1.Cover – measured as percentages in various types
2.Soil Moisture – measured using in-situ probes.
3.Soil Roughness - pinmeter is used to measure the soil surface roughness at
30mm spacing.
4.Wet and Dry Biomass – measured using samples and recorded together with
a visual estimate.
5.Electromagnetic Conductivity - using an EM38 Sensor.
These parameters adequately represent a 2 layer target model with short
vegetation on top of a slightly conductive rough soil medium. The sampling
captures spatial variability of the soil moisture and roughness. Areas where
larger vegetation such as trees are present is noted and points near power lines
where the EM-38 sensor is adversely affected by other magnetic fields the
readings from this sensor are rejected.

Sampling Strategy

EM38 and Soil moisture measurements are performed in a pattern around a

centre point as in Figure 2 in a 40m radius circle to the outermost points and
25m radius circle to the inner group of points.

Soil Surface Roughness Parameterisation

A number of soil surface profiles were collected as illustrated below at the study
sites using a pin-meter with 30mm spacing between the centres of the rod as
illustrated below in Figure 2. The soil profile is converted to Gaussian standard
deviation and correlation length representation for use with established soil
backscatter simulation models which represent the surface as a random
Gaussian with zero mean and exponential correlation[2].

Figure 2: Pin-Profiler used for estimating soil surface roughness

3
Variable Independence analysis

The set of field variables selected for inclusion in the study are examined for
linear independence using correlation statistics. It is established that the wet
and dry biomass is linearly related hence all vegetation contains 9.6% moisture
on average.
The surface roughness and EM38 readings are weakly correlated a few other
parameters have correlation above 0.5, but all the values are unrelated and
suitable for use in multiple regression (Table 1).

Soil Soil Surface

Biomass Bare Moisture Moisture Roughness Em38 Em38
Wet Soil mean std std mean std
Biomass Wet 1 0.28 0.33 0 0.08 0.37 0.21
Bare Soil 0.28 1 0.13 0.13 0.52 0.53 0.34
Soil Moisture
mean 0.33 0.13 1 0.53 0.1 0.05 0.01
Soil Moisture
std 0 0.13 0.53 1 0.09 0.02 0.25
Surface
Roughness
std 0.08 0.52 0.1 0.09 1 0.51 0.31
Em38 mean 0.37 0.53 0.05 0.02 0.51 1 0.6
Em38 std 0.21 0.34 0.01 0.25 0.31 0.6 1

Table 1: Correlation Analysis of Measured Field variables

Satellite data collection

ALOS-PALSAR and TerraSAR-X dual polarimetric data was concurrently

collected. TerraSAR-X acquisition was on 2009-09-14 while the PALSAR
acquisition was on 2009-9-10. Both dates fall within the field work window.
Variables which change rapidly such as soil moisture are expected to have a
high degree of error between satellite and field observations, but due to the
generally dry weather at this time the variation is not expected to be significant.
TerraSAR-X was collected in stripmap mode with 38.73° incidence angle at
scene center. The TerraSAR-X Scenes have a swath width of 15km and a
length of 50km.
ALOS-PALSAR was collected in Fine Beam Dual (FBD) – equivalent to
TerraSAR-X dual-polarimetric stripmap mode with an incidence angle of 38.93°.
PALSAR scenes have a nominal size of 70x70 km.

4
PALSAR and TerraSAR-X Data Analysis

Figure 4: HH/HV Backscatter Figure 3: TerraSAR-X HH/VV

Amplitude for ALOS-PALSAR Covariance Image

The ALOS-PALSAR data is focused using the Gamma Interferometric SAR

processor and used in single-look complex form for further analysis. The data is
multilooked with 2 looks in range and 8 looks in azimuth to produce almost
square pixels. This product (Figure 4) is then Lee filtered and processed with
dual-interferometric techniques.
The HH/VV TerraSAR-X data (Figure 3) is suitable for both standard channel by
channel backscatter comparisons to observed field variables as well as dual-
polarimetric techniques particularly analysis of the phase difference distribution
and dual-polarimetric entropy-alpha decomposition.

Backscatter Analysis

The backscatter amplitude in the HH and HV channels of PALSAR is related

empirically to the field values of soil surface rougness, soil moisture and wet
biomass measured. Ordinary least squares regression is performed at this
exploratory stage. Later model development and transformed explanatory
variables will be used
TerraSAR-X is highly sensitive to small scale roughness and grassland
vegetation. TerraSAR-X has been successfully used to monitor rice crops in

5
Spain[3] and wheat crops in Southern parts of Australia[4]. This makes
TerraSAR-X a feasible option for pasture biomass measurement since pastures
have similar grass-like vegetation, though with a much lower biomass. In this
case the pastures have very low moisture content and surface scattering forms
a significant part of the net backscatter.
The R2 regression statistic for individual explanatory variables is too low
indicating the vegetation as well as soil surface contribute to the net
backscatter. An exploratory linear regression was performed against all
variables. Multivariate regressions with more than one of the independent
variables provide better explanation of the scattering observed. The chosen
independent variables are:
• Vegetation Wet Biomass
• Bare Soil Percentage
• Soil surface standard deviation
• Soil moisture mean
• Soil moisture standard deviation
• Soil Conductivity mean
• Soil Conductivity standard deviation
The standard deviations of the measured variables are included in the
regression to account for the error in the measurements performed.
A multi-variate model is selected after statistical analysis and physical
scattering considerations[5]. From physical considerations the dominant
explanatory variables for scattering are the surface roughness and moisture
content and the vegetation wet biomass. These factors are borne out by the R2
analysis for a multivariate model selection. The R2 values range from 0.6 to
0.74 with 4 parameters. The discrepancy is expected due to the high spatial
variability observed in the soil moisture sampling and temporal differences
between the sampling and image acquisition.
The backscatter is affected by soil moisture and roughness and the principal
contribution of vegetation return is the moisture content. The soil parameters as
well as the backscatter values are used as independent variables in a linear
regression to determine moisture content in kg/ha.

Variable Coefficient t-value

Intercept 585.08 4.17
PALSAR HH 11222 0.9
PALSAR HV -39318 -2.73
TerraSAR-X HH -17425 -3.21
TerraSAR-X VV 16045 2.8
Soil Roughness -47.93 -1.41
Soil Moisture 14.53 1.67
Table 2: Regression coefficients for vegetation water content estimation

6
 Figure 5: Linear Model fitted to estimate vegetation water content from SAR
backscatter

Polarimetric Decomposition

Dual-polarimetric Entropy/Alpha (H/a) decomposition is applied to the PALSAR

image and the results classified according to the Cloude-Pottier scheme[6]
(Figure 5). Considering the shifts produced by dual-polarimetry[4] as opposed
to full-polarimetry some of the pixels are reclassified. The results indicate
surface scattering in the areas shown in purple and volume scattering in the
areas shown in blue.
The polarimetric classification results indicate heavily vegetated areas along the
river interspersed with pastures. When relating biomass observed in the field to

7
the SAR backscatter the different scattering mechanisms (Figure 7 and 6) in
the different areas need to be accounted for.

Conclusions

This study performs a preliminary data exploration for a potential pasture

biomass estimation and investigates how different microwave frequencies can
complement each other. The vegetation in this case had very low moisture
content and pasture biomass cannot be ascertained with great certainty without
knowledge of other affecting conditions such as soil surface roughness and
moisture content.

Future Work

Future work will explore electromagnetic modeling of the pastures at L and X

band leading to physically sound inversion techniques for dual-polarimetric
multi-band SAR imagery. The field variables will be used to test the theoretical
SAR simulation model provided by PolsarPRO for L-band bare ground and
ground + short vegetation. Fieldwork will need to be carried out at different

Figure 7: Dual-polarimetric
entropy/alpha for PALSAR illustrating
volume scattering

Figure 8: Dual-polarimetric
entropy/alpha for PALSAR illustrating
Figure 6: Entropy/Alpha Classification surface scattering (entropy in the x-
Result for ALOS-PALSAR. Blue areas are axis, mean-alpha in the y-axis, the
vegetated, Purple areas are bare colour represents point density – blue is
low density and red is high density)
times of the season to assess the impact of vegetation and soil-moisture
content on the total resultant backscatter.

8
References
[1] Richard Lucas, John Armston, John Carreiras and Bunting Peter. Regional
Characterisation and Mapping of Australian Forest Structural Types from ALOS
PALSAR data. In Alos 2008 symposium. 2008.
[2] Oh Y, Sarabandi K & Ulaby F. An empirical model and an inversion
technique for radar scattering from bare soil surfaces. Geoscience and Remote
Sensing, IEEE Transactions on (1992) 30: pp. 370-381.
[3] Lopez-Sanchez J, Ballester-Berman J & Hajnsek I. Rice monitoring in Spain
by means of time series of TerraSAR-X Dual-pol images. TerraSAR-X Science
Team Meeting 2008 (2008)
[4] Dhar T, Gray D & Menges C. Agricultural performance monitoring with dual-
polarimetric TerraSAR-X imagery. In Proceedings of iet china 2009 radar
conference. 2009.
[5] Stiles J, Sarabandi K & Ulaby F. Electromagnetic scattering from grassland.
II. Measurement and modeling results. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and
Remote Sensing (2000) 38: pp. 349-356.
[6] Cloude S. The dual polarisation entropy/alpha decomposition: A palsar case
study. European Space Agency, (Special Publication) ESA SP (2007) : p. 6 -