Performance of Microwave Data for Assessment of Biomass,Soil Moisture and Carbon Balance for Wetlands
Dabrowska - Zielinska, katarzyna1; Dabrowska - Zielinska, Katarzyna2; Budzynska, Maria1; Ziolkowski, Dariusz1; Gatkowska, Martyna1; Tomaszewska, Monika1; Turlej, Konrad1; Malek, Iwona1
1Institute of Geodesy and Cartography, POLAND; 2Institute of Geodesy and Carography, POLAND

The area of wetlands, one of the largest in Europe was covered by radar data for the years: 2003-2012. For 2003 - 2011 ENVISAT ASAR of VV, HV, HH, VH polarization and various incident angle IS2, IS4 and IS6 were registered. Also ALOS PALSAR for 2007-2010 covering nearly the same dates as ENVISAT ASAR and for the year 2012 TerraSAR-X were examined. The aim of the project was to investigate the relationship between soil - vegetation parameters and backscattering coefficients under various wave length, polarization and incidence angle. Alternating Polarization Mode gives possibility to estimate various parameters, which are significant for prediction of carbon uptake by vegetation. The wetlands are characterized by different type and vegetation structure and various moisture. Various ground measurements were performed during satellite acquisitions as biomass, LAI, soil moisture APAR. Since 2010 the measurements of carbon balance were done using in-situ chamber method. Also, the aim of the research was to find out the CO2 flux for wetlands in order to examine how much of carbon is sequestered or how much is released under what kind of wetland conditions. The examinations of vegetation structure and soil moisture from radar satellites on CO2 sequestration gives the possibility to make the first approach of assessing the use of Sentinel 1 data for wetlands.

The satellite images have been obtained for ESA projects: AO ID 122 and AOALO.3742 and large of the study has been performed within PECS project No. 98101: "Study and implement remote sensing techniques for the assessment of carbon balances for different biomasses and soil moistures within various ecosystems