Remote sensing of desert surface processes and properties using multi-temporal radar imagery

The utilisation of the European Space Agency (ESA) ERS Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) sensor for monitoring semiarid and arid land surface properties and processes is explored. Adopting a time-series approach, variations in the backscatter coefficient are observed for a range of natural surfaces that are considered characteristic of the Eastern Badia of Jordan. Imagery covering the period March 1995 through to March 1997 are analysed; aided with a knowledge of radar-surface interactions at C-band and field measurements made during three seasons. Soil moisture and texture, surface roughness and vegetation data were collected along with climatic data from an automatic weather station. This data are used to validate an approximation of the integral equation model (IEM) to test the applicability of a theoretical scattering model on desert surfaces. Good correlation's have been found between those backscatters predicted by the IEM and those backscatters derived from imagery. These encouraging results enable a greater understanding of how important environmental variables influence the backscatter coefficient.