Understanding the vegetation effect over snow-covered areas

The aim of this paper is to understand the influence of northern coniferous forest on the backscattering coefficients of snow cover. Measurements of snow, ground and forest characteristics are used in a multilayer radiative transfer model to simulate the seasonal changes in the backscattering signatures of young black spruce with respect to the configuration of RADARSAT SAR. The results show that the sensitivity of the backscattering coefficients to the vegetation is affected by the snow/ground dielectric properties.