Detection of Acromyrmex Ant Nest in Industrial Forest by P-Band SAR Tomography

The presence of leaf-cutting Acromyrmerx ants in industrial forest plantations is one of the main causes of the loss of biomass and productivity that affect the large pulp producers in Brazil. Thus, the development of monitoring tools that allow the extraction of information below the surface in large areas, such as Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) systems, is of crucial importance. This work presents a set of unprecedented electromagnetic simulations for the detection of Acromyrmex ant nests with 1 up to 13 chambers in industrial forests. Ant nests in bare soil and under forest cases were considered for simulations, obtaining promising results that can be used in subsequent tests with real data based on SAR circular and helical survey.