RESUME Wide swath imagery of the ENVISAT Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ASAR) may be used to study and map biophysical parameters of the Siberian forest. Within this study multi incidence-angle capacities of the ASAR Wide Swath (WS) mode for deriving forest types and biomass parameters are assessed. For this purpose a processing chain was set up to manage orthorectify, calibrate and analyse...

This paper gives details of image quality analysis of ASAR image mode IMP VV polarisation products performed during the ASAR commissioning phase. Initially, a description of the analysis methodology and performance assessment tools, image properties and example IMP products is given followed by the image quality analysis. This analysis includes format verification, impulse response function mea...

ENVISAT fast delivery RA-2 and ASAR wind and wave products are routinely received, monitored and validated at ECMWF. RA-2 wind speed product is of good quality. Although Ku-band significant wave height (SWH) product is slightly high, it is of high quality. The redundant side B of RA-2 produced SWH product of even better quality. The S-band wave height product is generally of good quality. The i...

On the base of the Integrated Agricultural Administration and Controlling System (InVeKos) the Federal State of Thuringia (Germany) has a strong interest in actual, area covering land use types and borders. Until now the inventory is based on optical orthophotos. Goal of this study is to analyze, whether these orthophotos might be replaced by spaceborne remote sensing data, especially by multit...

Optical satellite albedo observations of forests suffer from understory contamination, but C-band microwave reacts mostly with the canopy. This paper studies whether or not adding ASAR backscattering information could enhance optical albedo retrieval accuracy. We compare SPOT-4-retrieved reflectances combined with ASAR backscattering ratios with solely optically retrieved SPOT-4 NIR albedo, and...

Interferometric data processing requires careful calibration and validation of the complex input products. Interferometric calibration comprises geometric and phase accuracy aspects. With respect to geometry, orbit and timing parameter have to be calibrated in order to allow accurate geo-coding and optimal processing of the interferometric products. Phase accuracy of the input complex products ...

This paper illustrates some results obtained in the frame of an experimental campaign carried out on several wheat fields of the Matera (Italy) site, from February 2003 to June 2004. During this period, ENVISAT ASAR data, at alternating polarization mode and at different incidence angles, were acquired on the area roughly every week. Ground data such as soil moisture content, wheat biomass, LAI...

This paper summarizes the first results on interferometric ENVISAT/ ASAR image mode products [1]. We analyzed timing and geometric accuracy as well as the phase of a first interferogram from an IS2 image mode data set (VV polarized). According to the schedule the image mode products of this beam products are the first to be validated [2]. This interferogram is one of the first ENVISAT/ ASAR int...

ABSTRACT A method has been developed to apply multi-temporal Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar (ENVISAT/ASAR, C-Band) images to snow cover monitoring and mapping in mountainous areas. A multi-temporal dataset that includes sequences of ascending and descending ASAR wide swath and beam mode IS2 scenes acquired over Switzerland was investigated. The images were geometrically corrected to remove r...