ALOS PALSAR BACKSCATTER MOSAICS

FOR QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA

John Armston 1, João Carreiras 2, Richard Lucas 3, Masanobu Shimada 4

1
Joint Remote Sensing Research Program, School of Geography, Planning and
Environmental Management, The University of Queensland,
Remote Sensing Centre, Queensland Department of Environment and
Resource Management, 80 Meiers Road, Indooroopilly, Queensland, Australia
Tel: +61 7 3896 9696, Email: john.armston@qld.gov.au
2
Tropical Research Institute (IICT), Department of Natural Sciences, Rua João
de Barros, 27 1300-319 Lisboa, Portugal
3
Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences, Aberystwyth University,
Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, Wales, SY23 3DB, Wales, UK
4
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Earth Observation Research
Center (EORC), Sengen 2-1-1, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan, 305-8505

Abstract
Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) Phased Array L-band SAR
(PALSAR) 50 m spatial resolution dual polarisation (HH and HV) strip data were
provided for northern Australia as part of the Japanese Space Exploration
Agency (JAXA) Kyoto and Carbon (K&C) Initiative. In contrast to other regions
of the world, large differences in the backscattering coefficient were observed
between strips acquired on different dates and paths. In a previous study
(Lucas et al., 2010a), these changes were attributed to apparent differences in
the dielectric properties of the surface, with this established through reference
to soil and effective vegetation water content estimates from the Advanced
Microwave Scanning Radiometer-EOS (AMSR-E) and SILO daily rainfall
surfaces. This paper presents an overview of the approach used to generate
spatially and temporally consistent large area mosaics of ALOS PALSAR strip
data in Queensland Australia. Primary results showed minimum L-band HH
compositing produced near-seamless mosaics. However, observations acquired
over at least one year were required to achieve best results. Changes in surface
moisture can cause greater than 3 dB changes in HH polarised backscatter.
The resulting multi-date mosaics are now being used for detailed regional
assessments of land cover, above-ground biomass, mangroves and vegetation
condition.

Introduction
The launch of the Japanese Space Exploration Agency (JAXA) Advanced Land
Observing Satellite (ALOS) Phased Arrayed L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar
(PALSAR) in 2006 paved the way for regular, systematic and global L-band
radar observations of the Earth’s environments. To demonstrate the capacity of

1
these data for regional characterisation, mapping and monitoring of forests,
wetlands and deserts, the JAXA Kyoto and Carbon (K&C) Initiative1 provided 50
m strip data for scientific investigation. By mid 2010, 50 m mosaics had been
generated for several regions by JAXA, including Australia (2009 only), and
made available for public release. Mosaics are also being generated by
organisations associated with the K&C Initiative (e.g. NASA and the EU Joint
Research Centre).
Within most regions globally, the mosaics generated have been relatively
seamless (e.g. in eastern Asia and Japan). However, in other regions (e.g.
Australia and Africa), non-systematic variability backscatter magnitude within
and between strips has been observed. Recent research has linked this to
spatial patterns in soil moisture, vegetation water content and rainfall at the time
of image acquisition (Lucas et al., 2010a). The sensitivity of L-band SAR to the
dielectric properties of soil and vegetation is well understood but the impact on
large area compositing and mosaicing of SAR imagery has received little
attention. However, the generation of large area radar mosaics that are spatially
and temporally consistent is essential for land cover classification and the
estimation of biophysical attributes. The geometric and radiometric integrity of
the data also needs to be evaluated to facilitate routine uptake and use by
government agencies responsible for environmental monitoring.

To address these issues, the research described focused on the use of

individual ALOS PALSAR strip data, which were made available to the K&C
science team and processed to generate annual ALOS PALSAR K&C mosaics
from 2007 to 2009 for Queensland. Reference to Advanced Microwave
Scanning Radiometer – EOS (AMSR-E) indicated that the banding in the
mosaics was attributable to differences in the moisture content of the vegetation
and soil. On this basis, mosaics were generated from K&C strips associated
with drier conditions. The resulting mosaics for Queensland and examples of
the impact of surface moisture are also presented.

Data and Methods

K&C strip data

The ALOS PALSAR was launched on 24th January, 2006, and has since
operated in a 46 day repeat orbit cycle. The PALSAR is a multi-polarisation L-
band SAR with fine-beam single polarisation (FBS HH), fine-beam dual
polarisation (FBD HH+HV), polarimetric (PLR) and ScanSAR imaging modes.
The ALOS PALSAR has a systematic observation strategy implemented by
JAXA that aims to provide global terrestrial coverage at medium spatial
resolutions (10−50 m), at least twice per year since 2007 for the duration of the
ALOS mission (Rosenqvist et al., 2007). This study used data from the FBD
imaging mode, typically acquired between May and September each year with
an off-nadir angle of 34.3°.

1
www.eorc.jaxa.jp/ALOS/en/kyoto/kyoto_index.htm

2
The FBD data were received as part of the JAXA K&C Initiative. The data were
provided as individual orbit strips, which were approximately 70 km across-track
and covered at least the length of Queensland along-track (Figure 1). These
data were multi-looked to give range and azimuth pixel spacing in ground range
of approximately 37 m and 51 m, respectively, which is a factor of four less that
the full spatial resolution FBD data. Figure 1 shows that up to three dates were
provided for each year from 2007 to 2009, however some strips (e.g. 370) were,
at the time of writing, missing data for some years.

140°E 150°E

390 2007
10°S

10°S
389 2008
388 2009
387
386
385
384
383
382
381
380

ALOS PALSAR RSP

200 km
379
378
377
376
375
20°S

20°S

374
373
372
371
370
369
368
367
366
365
364
363
362
361
360
30°S

30°S

359
360
362
390
388

374

370
368
366
364
386
384

382
380
378
376

372

2 4 6 8 10

140°E 150°E Number of strips

Figure 1. ALOS PALSAR K&C strip data (2007−2009) provided by JAXA for ALOS
Reference System for Planning (RSP) 359 to 390.

The K&C strip data were delivered as 16-bit image data in slant range
geometry. All processing was then undertaken using Gamma SAR processing
software (Wegmüller et al., 1998; Wegmüller, 1999) and in-house software. The
data were converted from digital number (DN) to values of σ0 (dB) by
σ 0 (dB ) = 10 log 10 (DN 2 ) + CF , (1)
where CF is the calibration factor (Table 1; Shimada et al., 2009). Note that
subsequent processing were in linear units of σ 0 , not dB.

3
 Table 1. Calibration factors used for operational processing of K&C strip data.
Polarisation Processing Date Calibration Factor
HH Before 2009/01/09 -83.2 dB
2009/01/09 to date -83.0 dB
HV Before 2009/01/09 -80.2 dB
2009/01/09 to date -83.0 dB

Masking of range power loss

Prior to geocoding, an automated approach was required to correct slant range
images affected by range power loss at near range, far range or both (Figure 2).
This problem with K&C strip data is caused by antenna pattern reduction and
has also been reported by other research (Rosenqvist and De Grandi, 2009).
The extent of the power loss was not consistent in azimuth or range, within or
between strips.

Figure 2. An example of range power loss in K&C strip data. The loss of power at far
range is shown in the HH slant range backscatter amplitude image (left). The horizontal
red line is the location of the backscatter profile (right). The vertical red line shows the
cut-off point determined by the adaptive mask.

A simple adaptive method was therefore developed to mask these data from
further processing. Each HH and HV strip was processed in 256 line blocks. For
each block, the following process was applied:
1. All pixels were averaged in the azimuth direction.
2. Relative cumulative histograms were calculated separately for near and far
range to mid swath.
3. The near and far range cut-off points were set to be where each relative
cumulative histogram was 5%.
4. To avoid masking useful data at near or far range, tests were implemented
to establish if there was a difference between the mean of range pixels up to
the cut-off point and range pixels from the cut-off point to mid-swath. This
involved:

4
 i. Calculation of the nearly-normal Z test statistic using the Wilcoxon rank-
sum test.
ii. Calculation of the one-tailed probability (p) of obtaining a value of Z or
greater.
iii. Masking to block, if the p was ≤0.025, then the block is masked up to the
cut-off point (plus an optional offset) or the 400th pixel, whichever was
first. Otherwise no pixels in the block were masked.

Geometric correction
Geocoding of the strip data was undertaken within the Gamma Differential
Interferometry and Geocoding (DIFF & GEO) modules by generating a look-up
table to transform the SAR data from the slant-range/azimuth geometry to map
projection geometry. The geocoding involved initial determination and then
refinement of the geometric transformation and subsequent resampling of the
strips from slant range SAR coordinates to map geometry. The initial
determination of the geometric transformation was based on orbital state
vectors and used a version of the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM)
derived 30 m Digital Elevation Model (DEM) that was released by Geoscience
Australia (GA, 2009).
Refinement of the transformation was undertaken by automatically quantifying
offsets between the actual SAR image and one simulated from the SRTM-
derived DEM (transformed to radar geometry) through image chip cross-
correlation. This refinement is generally successful over areas of substantial
topographic complexity. However, as much of Queensland has very little
topographic relief, particularly in the interior, there were often insufficient
features for reliable cross-correlation. Therefore refinement of the geometric
transformation was undertaken by image chip cross-correlation matching
between the HV strip image and a Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM+)
panchromatic mosaic registered to ground control points (Gill et al., 2010). This
was undertaken as sufficient spatial contrasts in land cover were evident.
A polynomial was then fitted to the offsets determined though automated cross-
correlation. The order of the polynomial depended on the length of the strip. For
some coastal strips (e.g. RSP’s 359 and 360), a 1st or 2nd order polynomial was
sufficient. For long strips that cover the entire length of Queensland (e.g. RSP
374), a polynomial up to 6th order was used. The strip data were resampled to
UTM (WGS84) projection where they intersected zones 54, 55 and 56 using the
polynomial refined look-up table.

Radiometric correction
Following geocoding, simple corrections for local ground scattering area and
local incidence angle were undertaken using the theory outlined by Castel et al.
(2001). This is also the approach being taken in other K&C research (Thiel et
al., 2009; Santoro et al., 2009) and the basic equations are presented here. The
first step is to correct for variations in local ground scattering area (A). With the
assumption of flat terrain, A is given by

5
 ra ⋅ rs
Af = , (2)
sin (θ )
and over sloped terrain is given by
ra ⋅ rs
As = , (3)
cos(ψ )
where ra and rs are the azimuth and slant range pixel spacing respectively, θ is
the local incidence angle assuming flat terrain and ψ is the angle between the
surface normal and image plane normal (See Ulander (1996; Figure 3) for a
useful illustration of this geometry). The next step was to correct for variation in
backscatter caused by topography. Using the scattering approximations of
Castel et al. (2001), the main quantities that change with varying topography
are local incidence angle and path length through the canopy. Using the same
notation of Santoro et al. (2009), these effects of slope on local ground
scattering area and angular variation in backscatter were corrected by
A  cos(θ r ) 
n

γ = σ f 
0 0
 , (4)
As  cos(θ i ) 

where γ 0 is the corrected σ0 in backscatter intensity, and cos(θi) and cos(θr) are
the local and reference incidence angles, respectively. Previous studies have
used the local incidence angle for flat terrain at mid-swath for individual images
(e.g. Thiel et al., 2009). However, 39° was used as this was the mode local
incidence angle for flat terrain at mid-swath for all strips. n is the parameter that
encapsulates the effect of SAR configuration and crown optical depth on
angular variation in backscatter. For bare surfaces, n is equal to one and
decreases with increasing canopy optical depth. Since there was no a priori
knowledge of canopy optical depth, n was set to one. All other parameters were
provided with the strip metadata or derived from the 30 m SRTM DEM

Compositing and mosaicing

For each year and RSP, the average HH γ 0 was calculated. The acquisition
date with the minimum averaged HH γ 0 was selected for mosaicing. The HH
polarisation was used because it is more sensitive to variation in soil moisture
and effective vegetation water content, as shown later in this paper. Near range
pixels were selected over far range pixels to preserve original γ 0 values in the
final mosaics. Problems with image quality at near and far range due to antenna
pattern reduction were avoided by masking the power range loss. Spatial
metadata are also created to accompany the final mosaics including the
acquisition date (number of days since launch), and layover/shadow/water
masks.
To provide independent indicators of surface moisture conditions for each RSP,
Aqua Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-EOS (AMSR-E; launched
May 2002) daily effective vegetation water content and soil moisture estimates
were sourced through the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC; Njoku,

6
 updated daily). The soil moisture estimates are near surface (in the top ~1 cm)
and are in units of g cm-3, averaged over the retrieval footprint. The effective
vegetation water content, which includes the effects of large scale surface
roughness, is the amount of water (kg m-2) in the vertical column of vegetation,
averaged over the retrieval footprint.
Ascending Aqua passes were used because comparison of the AMSR-E
surfaces with SILO daily rainfall surfaces suggested greater sensitivity than
descending passes to rainfall events and the subsequent retention of moisture.
See Lucas et al. (2010a) for some comparisons with rainfall surfaces. The use
of ascending passes is also consistent with other soil moisture research in
Australian savanna environments (Renzullo et al., 2008). To balance reducing
noise in the data with preserving short-term variability, a 5-day boxcar average
filter was applied to the AMSR-E time-series prior to extraction. This procedure
also ensured there was complete ‘daily’ spatial coverage for all of Queensland.
Example time series of SILO daily rainfall and AMSR-E soil and vegetation
water content for 2007 are shown in Figure 3 with the timing of PALSAR
overpasses. The PALSAR FBD overpasses are typically through the dry season
although they still often intersect rainfall events. There is correspondence
between the peaks of rainfall and effective vegetation moisture content and to a
lesser extent soil moisture.

Mixed Species Forest 145.18°E 16.81°S

6
0.6

Effective vegetation water content (kg m )

4
0.4
Surface soil moisture (g cm )

2
−3

0.2
0.0 0
Eucalypt Woodland 144.53°E 24.34°S
6
0.6
4
0.4
0.2 2

0.0 0
Mulga Open Woodland 144.64°E 26.40°S
6
0.6
4
0.4
0.2 2
−2

0.0 0

Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

2007 (AMSR-E ascending passes)

Figure 3. The range of environmental conditions in 2007 for three sites with contrasting
vegetation cover compared to the timing of ALOS PALSAR overpasses (dashed
vertical lines). The AMSR-E surface soil moisture (blue line) and effective vegetation
water content (green line) are shown. The timing and relative magnitude of rainfall
events (SILO daily rainfall; filled grey) is also shown.

7
There is very little temporal variation in soil moisture over time, especially over
the mixed species forest site. However soil moisture estimates are known to be
inaccurate over even moderate vegetation cover (Bindlish et al., 2006).
Although estimates of effective vegetation water content include the combined
effect of large scale surface roughness and vegetation, temporal changes can
be interpreted primarily as changes in water content since these are relatively
constant over time at the spatial resolution of the product (Njoku and Chan,
2006).

Results and Discussion

Evaluation of geometric accuracy

Figure 4 shows the distributions of range and azimuth root mean square errors
(RMSE) for individual K&C strips following geocoding. The median RMSE in
both range and azimuth is less than 0.25 pixels and the error is consistent
between years, which is a strong result overall. It is important to note that this
error assessment is dependent on the polynomial model fit and is therefore not
independent. Geometric errors are generally higher in range than azimuth, and
the outliers primarily correspond to strips dominated by ocean. This was
because insufficient matching of features between the SAR and Landsat image
data and a poor spatial distribution of tie-points resulted in spurious polynomial
model fits.

Azimuth offsets Range offsets

0.8
RMSE (50 m pixels)

0.6

0.4

0.2

2007 2008 2009 2007 2008 2009

Year

Figure 4. Distribution of strip registration RMSE in the range and azimuth directions for
each year of data available.

Queensland mosaics 2007−2009

The statewide mosaics produced for Queensland 2007−2009 are shown in
Figure 5 along with coincident date mosaics of AMSR-E soil moisture and
effective vegetation water content. Areas of water, layover and shadow have
been masked.

8
 Figure 5. Annual mosaics of γ 0 for Queensland 2007−2009 generated from strips
acquired under relatively dry conditions. Soil moisture and effective vegetation moisture
content at the time of PALSAR image acquisition are also shown.

9
There is residual banding in the 2008 and to a lesser extent the 2007 mosaic,
which is particularly noticeable around the Carnarvon Gorge region in central
Queensland. The 2009 L-band mosaics are relatively seamless. JAXA has
released a 50 m mosaic of Australia for this same year.
Lucas et al. (2010a) showed a clear difference in γ 0 between K&C strips
acquired under minimum and maximum effective vegetation water content in
2007. The residual banding the 2007 and 2008 mosaics correspond to elevated
soil moisture and effective water content in the AMSR-E surfaces shown in
Figure 5, although to a lesser extent. For all PALSAR mosaic years, south-east
Queensland and coastal regions exhibit elevated soil moisture. Much is this
area supports moderate to dense vegetation cover, including tropical and
subtropical forests, which would bias the soil moisture estimates towards higher
values (Bindlish et al., 2006).
The 2009 γ 0 mosaic exhibits low effective vegetation moisture content
throughout the state apart from some coastal areas and the Carnarvon Gorge
region. This can be explained by large scale surface roughness because of
topographic influences elevating the vegetation water content estimates (Njoku
and Chan, 2006). This effect may be removed if the minimum effective
vegetation moisture content for each pixel within the time series was subtracted
from the estimate, allowing the remaining change to be interpreted solely as
vegetation water content.

Impacts of surface moisture

An example of the impact of surface moisture condition on a time series of the
HH and HV polarised data is shown for a sample of pixels from RSP 374 in
Figure 6. The magnitude of difference in γ 0 between dates is greater for HH (up
to 3 dB RMSE) than for HV (up to 2 dB RMSE) polarisation but the same bias is
observed. The dates that have similarly low effective vegetation water content
have a 1:1 relationship and correspond to within approximately 1 dB.
This effect is attributed to different scattering mechanisms associated with the
HH and HV polarisations. L-band HH is mainly double bounce and ground
backscatter and HV mainly volume (crown) scattering (Lucas et al., 2004). A
large increase in soil moisture may be more evident in the HH than in the HV γ 0
due to increased scattering from the wetter surface. This is primarily through
direct ground returns and double bounce interactions between the trunks and
ground. With increasing above-ground biomass, attenuation of microwaves is
greater and volume scattering dominates, therefore the contribution to HH γ 0
from these scattering mechanisms is reduced (Watanabe et al., 2006).
The L-band HH γ 0 bias shown in Figure 6 for 2007/09/05 is also illustrated
spatially in Figure 7. The areas of woody vegetation and pastures exhibit higher
HH γ 0 than within the corresponding 2007/10/21 acquisition date. An interesting
observation is the appearance of rain “bands” across the 2007/09/05 image,
which highlights that surface water following rainfall strongly affects the
PALSAR backscatter.

10
 20070905 20071021 20070905 20071021
-5 1.67 kg m-2 1.19 kg m-2 -5 1.67 kg m-2 1.19 kg m-2
-10 RMSE = 3.01 RMSE = 1.13 -10 RMSE = 2.08 RMSE = 1.00

-15 -15
-20 -20
-25 -25
L-HH γ (dB)

L-HV γ (dB)
-30 -30
0

0
20080907 20081023 20080907 20081023
-5 2.25 kg m-2 1.28 kg m-2 -5 2.25 kg m-2 1.28 kg m-2
-10 RMSE = 2.57 RMSE = 1.10 -10 RMSE = 1.70 RMSE = 1.02

-15 -15
-20 -20
-25 -25
-30 -30

-30 -25 -20 -15 -10 -5 -30 -25 -20 -15 -10 -5 -30 -25 -20 -15 -10 -5 -30 -25 -20 -15 -10 -5
0 0
L-HH γ (dB) L-HV γ (dB)
−2 −2
RSP 374 - 20070709 (1.11 kg m ) RSP 374 - 20070709 (1.11 kg m )

Figure 6. Consistency of L-HH (left) and L-HV (right) backscatter from 2007 to 2008
acquisition dates for RSP 374 when compared to the strip with minimum effective
vegetation water content.

2007/09/05 2007/10/21

Figure 7. ALOS PALSAR L-band HH image for a “wet” (left) and a “dry” (right)
acquisition date for RSP 374. The AMSR-E/Aqua L2B effective vegetation water
content product for the corresponding dates are also shown.

11
Conclusions and Future Research
This paper has presented a simple approach to generating annual ALOS
PALSAR backscatter mosaics for Queensland, Australia. These are the first
large area PALSAR mosaics generated for multiple dates in Australia. These
mosaics are now being used for mapping brigalow regrowth following clearing
(Accad et al., 2010), above-ground biomass (Lucas et al., 2010b), mangrove
extent and change (Lucas, 2010) and improved mapping of wooded extent
(Kitchen et al., 2010). An advantage of the K&C data strip being multi-looked to
approximately 50m spatial resolution is that speckle is minimised and
classification algorithms may be applied without additional pre-processing.
The PALSAR K&C strips were geometrically registered to Landsat-7 ETM+
panchromatic imagery with median range and azimuth average RMSE of less
than 0.25 pixels. This has ensured optimum integration with Landsat-derived
foliage projective cover (Armston et al., 2009; Kitchen et al., 2010). However
these figures are for the polynomial model fits and do not reflect known
misregistration errors for strips dominated by ocean. Current work is attempting
to address these problems and to generate independent geometric error
statistics using similar methods developed for Landsat data (Gill et al., 2010).
Future research on the ALOS PALSAR radiometric corrections will focus on
accuracy assessment of the local incidence angle correction using pixel pairs in
the path overlaps. Accounting for the scattering properties of the surface has
the potential to improve the local incidence angle correction and, in turn,
estimates of γ 0 . It may be possible that Landsat-derived estimates of foliage
projective cover (Armston et al., 2009) could be used, as a proxy for canopy
optical depth to adjust n in Equation 4 (e.g. Clewley et al., 2010).
The evaluation and use of AMSR-E data products in this study was qualitative,
and further exploration of soil and vegetation moisture dynamics and their
impact on ALOS PALSAR time series using AMSR-E, Soil Moisture and Ocean
Salinity (SMOS) and ground measurement time series data is required. This is
particularly important for change detection and above-ground biomass
estimation (Lucas et al., 2010b). AMSR-E and SILO data are freely available
and are a useful tool for selection of appropriate ALOS PALSAR image dates.
Although AMSR-E products, as with PALSAR, are derived from microwave
remote sensing, their high temporal resolution coverage permits wall-to-wall
assessment of relative changes in soil moisture and vegetation water content
over time. Rainfall records can be sparse due to the distribution of the
meteorological stations (can be > 100 km apart). Therefore the only available
data may not be representative of the rainfall at the desired location. A
combination of soil moisture, effective vegetation water content and rainfall may
be more appropriate for selecting ALOS PALSAR data as they may better
reflect the moisture content of surfaces, particularly those that are densely
vegetated.
This work may be of benefit to national efforts for carbon tracking and
integration of imaging radar data with Landsat time series data. The application
of the image processing chain described in this paper is currently being
extended to K&C FBD strip data for the Northern Territory and New South

12
Wales. These methods are being applied to all the full spatial resolution JERS-1
SAR, and ALOS PALSAR FBD, FBS and PLR data in the Remote Sensing
Centre image archive. When available, incorporation of a higher spatial
resolution DEM (e.g. Tandem-X) into the geometric and radiometric corrections
will yield improvements to the geometric and radiometric quality of ALOS
PALSAR mosaics.

Acknowledgements
This work has been undertaken within the framework of the JAXA Kyoto &
Carbon Initiative. ALOS PALSAR data have been provided by JAXA EORC. All
PALSAR images and derived products illustrated in this paper are copyright to
the ALOS K&C © JAXA/METI. Frank De Grandi and Maurizio Santoro are
thanked for advising the authors on problems encountered using the K&C strip
data. Particular thanks is extended to the JAXA, for the provision of these data

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