The doctoral dissertations of the former Helsinki University of Technology (TKK) and Aalto University Schools of Technology (CHEM, ELEC, ENG, SCI) published in electronic format are available in the electronic publications archive of Aalto University - Aaltodoc.
Aalto

Microwave Models of Snow Characteristics for Remote Sensing

Ali Nadir Arslan

Dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Science in Technology to be presented with due permission of the Department of Electrical and Communications Engineering for public examination and debate in Auditorium S4 at Helsinki University of Technology (Espoo, Finland) on the 4th of December, 2006, at 12 o'clock noon.

Overview in PDF format (ISBN 951-22-8532-0)   [493 KB]
Dissertation is also available in print (ISBN 951-22-8531-2)

Abstract

One of the key problems of microwave remote sensing is the development of theoretical microwave models for terrain such as soil, vegetation, snow, forest, etc., due to the complexity of modeling of microwave interaction with the terrain. In this thesis this problem is approached from the new point of view of both empirical models and rigorous theoretical models. New information concerning radar remote sensing of snow-covered terrain and permittivity of snow has been produced. A C-band semi-empirical backscattering model is presented for the forest-snow-ground system.

The effective permittivity of random media such as snow, vegetation canopy, soil, etc., describes microwave propagation and attenuation in the media and is a very important parameter in modeling of microwave interaction with the terrain. Good permittivity models are needed in microwave emission and scattering models of terrain. In this thesis, the strong fluctuation theory is applied to calculate the effective permittivity of wet snow. Numerical results for the effective permittivity of wet snow are illustrated. The results are compared with the semi-empirical and the theoretical models. A comparison with experimental data at 6, 18 and 37 GHz is also presented. The results indicate that the model presented in this work gives reasonably good accuracy for calculating the effective permittivity of wet snow. Microwave emission and scattering theoretical models of wet snow are developed based on the radiative transfer and strong fluctuation theory. It is shown that the models agree with the experimental data.

This thesis consists of an overview and of the following 6 publications:

  1. Arslan, A. N., Praks, J., Koskinen, J., and Hallikainen, M., An empirical model for retrieving snow water equivalent from C-band polarimetric SAR data, Helsinki University of Technology, Laboratory of Space Technology, Report No. 45, Espoo, 2001.
  2. Arslan, A. N., Pulliainen, J., and Hallikainen, M., Observations of L- and C-band backscatter and a semi-empirical backscattering model approach from a forest-snow-ground system, Progress In Electromagnetics Research, PIER 56, pp. 263-281, 2006.
  3. Arslan, A. N., Wang, H., Pulliainen, J., and Hallikainen, M., Effective permittivity of wet snow using strong fluctuation theory, Journal of Electromagnetic Waves and Applications, Vol. 15, pp. 53-55 (abstract), Progress In Electromagnetics Research, PIER 31, pp. 279-296 (the complete text), 2001.
  4. Wang, H., Arslan, A. N., Pulliainen, J., and Hallikainen, M., Microwave emission model for wet snow by using radiative transfer and strong fluctuation theory, Journal of Electromagnetic Waves and Applications, Vol. 15, pp. 57-59 (abstract), Progress In Electromagnetics Research, PIER 31, pp. 297-316 (the complete text), 2001.
  5. Arslan, A. N., Wang, H., Pulliainen, J., and Hallikainen, M., Scattering from wet snow by applying strong fluctuation theory, Journal of Electromagnetic Waves and Applications, Vol. 17, pp. 1009-1024, 2003.
  6. Arslan, A. N., Hallikainen, M., and Pulliainen, J., Investigating of snow wetness parameter using a two-phase backscattering model, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Vol. 43, No. 8, pp. 1827-1833, 2005.

Keywords: remote sensing, radar, radiometer, correlation functions, effective permittivity, snow, dry snow, wet snow, radiative transfer theory, strong fluctuation theory, microwave emission modeling, microwave scattering modeling, backscattering

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© 2006 Helsinki University of Technology

Last update 2011-05-26