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What is FRA-SAR 2010?
Within the framework of the United Nations global Forest Resource Assessment (FRA) for 2010 the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations implements a remote sensing survey (RSS) for the very first time. These satellite data will complement the national data, produce global and regional tree cover maps, and shows where changes in forest cover occur. The global RSS approach is based on optical remote sensing data whose application is for large forested areas hampered by atmospheric influences. Through the combined analysis of state of the art Synthetic Aperature Radar (SAR) satellite data FRA-SAR 2010 helps to overcome the resulting data gaps of the FAO sampling design. |
Scientific Background
FRA-SAR 2010 aims to test the application of TerraSAR-X data for the use in the global forest inventory and to develop a respective processing and analysis chain. The German TerraSAR-X radar satellite provides stable and high spatial resolution spaceborne X-band SAR data leading to novel perspectives in SAR applications. The FRA-SAR 210 project will apply TerraSAR-X data in a global context, allowing for the first time the analysis of the different geometric scales of radar data. Furthermore, the combined use of X-, C- and L- band SAR data from TerraSAR-X, Envisat, and ALOS at five special test sites is one of the rare multi-frequent SAR data analyses since the SIR-C/X-SAR Shuttle mission in 1994, whose results indicated the high potential of the synergy for forest structure mapping. In this regard, the project represents fundamental research with high application potential. |
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