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Influence of Vegetation Growth on the Polarimetric Zero-Baseline DInSAR Phase Diversity—Implications for Deformation Studies

The polarization diversity of the phase causes ambiguities in the estimation of displacements using differential interferometry. Over natural surfaces such as vegetated areas, the magnitude of these ambiguities is potentially related to complex dynamic processes such as vegetation growth. As the properties and possible origins of such diversity (besides noiselike influences) over changing vegetation canopies are virtually unknown, we propose to investigate them empirically using an L-band zero-baseline data set covering one growing season over different agricultural crops. We frequently observe HH-VV phase differences exceeding 0.5π, corresponding to a displacement discrepancy of 3 cm. The HH-VV phase difference and other properties of the polarimetric coherence regions (e.g., the shape and the relation to the in situ observed biomass) vary with the crop type. The observations over wheat and barley and, to a lesser extent, rape suggest the presence of birefringence within the canopy. By contrast, those over maize and sugar beet, while also showing phase diversity, cannot be explained by birefringence or similarly simple models. Irrespective of the origin of this dependence, its presence and systematic nature indicate the potential importance of vegetation effects in differential interferometry, which may limit the accuracy of the estimated deformations over vegetated areas.