SEMI-EMPIRICAL CALIBRATION OF THE INTEGRAL EQUATION MODEL FOR CO-POLARIZED L-BAND BACKSCATTERING

A semi-empirical calibration of the IEM was performed at L band in replacing the correlation length derived from field experiments by a fitting parameter. Better agreement was observed between the backscattering coefficient provided by the SAR and that simulated by the calibrated version of the IEM.

The objective of this paper is to extend the semi-empirical calibration of the backscattering Integral Equation Model (IEM) initially proposed for SAR data at C-and X-bands to SAR data at L band. A large dataset of radar signal and in situ measurements (soil moisture and surface roughness) over bare soil surfaces were used.