Numerical Full Inversion of Two Dielectric Cylinders Upon a Metallic Plane: A First Step Toward Forest Parameters Retrieval From VHF to P-Band Radar Data

Abstract

Radar remote sensing applied to forest covers is a domain of interest for a few decades, particularly in forest monitoring for the global carbon cycle. In this paper, we use a numerical electromagnetic scattering model to investigate the full-inversion of a simple case where two dielectric cylinders are lying upon a metallic ground seen as a theoretical representation of only one tree trunk and one primary branch. The presented process performs cylinders 3D-locations estimation using an Orthogonal Matching Pursuit (OMP) algorithm, then scattering coefficient is retrieved for each cylinder and each scattering mechanism separately and finally the cylinders biophysical parameters (height, radius, complex permittivity) inversion using a Particle Swarm Optimisation (PSO) algorithm. This process is based on target subspace decomposition and applied to noisy simulated radar data.