Exploiting Longer Wavelength SAR data for the improvement of surface process modelling

The main objective of this project has been to develop and validate L-band SAR algorithms for soil parameter retrieval and land cover classification, and to integrate the output of these algorithms into existing hydrologic models. The focus of the project has been on the use of multi-temporal L-band SAR data at single/double polarization, with the aim of generalizing the obtained results to current or envisaged spaceborne L-band SAR systems such as PALSAR, TerraSAR-L or SAOCOM. Nevertheless, the analysis has been often extended to include fully polarimetric and C-band data, particularly in the parts concerning the assessment of land cover classification algorithms. The developed and assessed methods are intended for agricultural areas and for watershed spatial scales (e.g. from 100 to 10000 km2), with spatial resolutions ranging from 25 to 150 m. The temporal scales, experimentally investigated, are of a few months (i.e. growing season) with resolutions going from one to several weeks.