Potential uses of TerraSAR-X for mapping herbaceous halophytes over salt marsh and tidal flats

A multi-sensor approach for detecting the different land covers of tidal flats in the German Wadden Sea — A case study at Norderney

“…They concluded that general bandsets are suitable for generating an overview map, while for distinctive surface types to be mapped the bandsets have to be adjusted to the specific spectral features. Lee, Park, Choi, Oh, and Won (2012) investigated the polarimetric SAR data of TSX to distinguish between two different kinds of salt marsh plants (annual plants and perennial plants). They concluded that winter is the best season for distinguishing between the two different species and that summer is ideal for analysing the distribution changes of annual plants in salt marshes.…”

Halophyte die-off in response to anthropogenic impacts on tidal flats

“…A 2009 classification map was generated based on the decision rule using TerraSAR-X and the boundaries of the surface sedimentary facies. Thresholds of backscattering coefficient for each step were suggested by Lee et al (2012). The boundaries of Suaeda japonica and Phragmites australis were delineated.…”

“…Choi et al (2011) found that halophytes display high spectral reflectance in optical satellite images and a high backscattering coefficient in SAR images, whereas channels that are submerged by surface water with no ripple marks display low spectral reflectance in optical satellite images and a very low backscattering coefficient in SAR images. Lee et al (2012) suggested a method for discriminating between annual plants and perennial grasses based on the characteristics of the backscattering coefficient in the X-band.…”

Analyses of Multi-Year Synthetic Aperture Radar Imagery of Dry-Fallen Intertidal Flats

“…Slatton et al (2008) analyzed several L-band SAR images with respect to temporal changes in multi-polarization signatures of coastal wetlands. The use of polarimetric SAR data was also supported by Won (2009) and Lee et al (2012), the former comparing polarimetric SAR signatures of salt-marsh plants on the South Korean coast with ground-based radar measurements, the latter finding that the radar backscatter from wetlands is stronger at horizontal (HH) than at vertical (VV) polarization. In addition, Choe et al (2012), demonstrated that polarimetric SAR data can also be used to detect mussel beds.…”