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Radar backscatter coefficients and snow detectability for upland terrain in Scotland

This paper presents a quantitative investigation of the relative importance of variations in incidence angle, land cover type, month of the year, and the presence or otherwise of a wet snow cover, in modulating the C-band VV backscattering coefficient from upland terrain in Scotland. We show that, provided the contributions from incidence angle and land cover are modelled, the uncertainty in a backscatter measurement can be reduced to approximately 1 dB. At this level of precision, a difference can be observed from a snow-covered area in the case of heather and rough grass, the two dominant upland vegetation types. Over heather-covered areas, a wet snow cover typically reduces the backscatter by 2 dB whereas over rough grass it is increased by about 1 dB. Densely forested areas exhibit no significant change in backscattering coefficient as a result of a wet snow cover, a result in accordance with previous research.