Assessment of radar techniques for regional forest cover mapping over Siberian forests

The application of remote sensing techniques beyond optical ones are demonstrated for the Siberian boreal forest. Spaceborn radar remote sensing has become an increasingly more used tool for observation of forest ecosystem, independent of time of day and weather conditions. The Ob' river basin was chosen as study area because of characteristic phenomena such as inundation and swamping and an increasing human impact on the environment such as clear cutting and fires. The application of Synthetic Aperture Radar is investigated.