Radiometric and geometric correction of RADARSAT-1 images acquired in alpine regions for mapping the snow water equivalent (SWE)

In this paper, introduced is an application of two radiometric slope correction methods on standard RADARSAT images in a mountainous environment like the Alps. Because of the highly varying topography, such corrections are needed to reduce the distortions on the backscattering coefficients when trying to monitor the snow characteristics from SAR data in alpine regions. This paper discusses the results obtained by the two different methods over dry and wet snow cover; both algorithms significantly reduced the effect of local slope facing the radar, but may not compensate enough for the steep slope over 30/spl deg/.