An airborne low frequency radar sensor for vegetation biomass measurement

A synthetic aperture radar sensor operating in the 120 to 80 MHz frequency range was developed for the purpose of measuring heavy forest biomass for carbon sequestration studies. An experiment was conducted on forest stands with different biomass densities to identify the frequency range required to separate stands with biomass densities above 100 metric tons per hectare (tons/ha) above-ground dry biomass. The results of the experiment are shown and the resulting sensor system design is explained.