A PolinSAR Inversion Error Model on Polarimetric System Parameters for Forest Height Mapping

Polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data are inevitably contaminated by polarization crosstalk and channel imbalance, which propagate to the error of final remote sensing product. To ensure the successful estimation of forest heights from forthcoming polarimetric SAR interferometry (PolinSAR) campaigns, a critical study on the polarimetric system requirements of PolinSAR for forest height mapping must be carried out. This paper establishes an analytical model for forest height estimation error including dependences on polarimetric system parameters including crosstalk, channel imbalance, and system noise. Simulation analyses are conducted on the real airborne SAR data acquired by the E-SAR system to validate the proposed theoretical error dependence model. We demonstrate that the established error model can be used not only by the system designers as a guidance for setting the polarimetric system requirements of PolinSAR for forest height mapping, but also by the data analyst to correct for systematic bias in the forest height inversion.