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Description
BorealScat-2 is a new tower-based tomographic radar experiment located in a boreal forest site in northern Sweden which acquires data in the frequency bands from P- to C-band. It is of similar design as its predecessor BorealScat except that the antenna frame (P- to L-band) can be moved along a 4 m aperture. The moveable frame increases the number of independent samples, thus reducing backscatter fluctuations. It also enables focused 3D imaging by combining tomographic and SAR processing when the backscatter is temporally stable. The system was designed for exceptionally fine temporal, spatial and radiometric resolution to reveal the subtle variations due to vegetation water dynamics. Together with an extensive in-situ atmospheric and ecosystem sensor network, the experiment allows investigations of new SAR applications pertaining to the sensing of vegetation water content, vertical moisture distribution and vegetation-atmosphere fluxes. Such new remote sensing observations over sub-daily timescales are particularly needed during hot summer conditions where plants are at greatest risk of drought-induced degradation. We show that multi-temporal BorealScat-2 observations are capable of resolving the spatiotemporal variations due to changes in vegetation water status related to vegetation water content and forest-atmosphere water fluxes.
