Towards Analysis Ready Data (ARD): Assessing Sentinel-1 Backscatter Data Suitability for Detecting Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining (ASM) Induced Deforestation Stages in the Tropics.

Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining (ASM) is one of the drivers of deforestation in the tropical forest in the Global South. This paper examined methods to create Sentinel-1 analysis-ready data (ARD) in Google Earth Engine (GEE) to map ASM activities in the tropics. Sentinel-1 backscatter processed in sigma naught (σ0) and the Sentinel-1 radiometric terrain normalized backscatter to gamma naught (γ0) were evaluated in this paper. The evaluation metrics then considered both radiometric and geometric quality assessments to detect the early and later stages of deforestation caused by ASM. The results showed that similar performance is achieved using both Sentinel-1 σ0 and γ0 backscatter data to detect ASM activities in flatter terrains. However, γ0 proved superior over the σ0 in steeper or areas of uneven topography to detect the stages of deforestation.