Table 1 Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and optical satellite sensor characteristics and image dates used in this Minnesota, USA, study to quantify coniferous forest fuels using field data collected in 2015 and 2016. Images used to classify overstory canopy composition are in boldface. Sensors include the Phased Array L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (PALSAR-1) aboard the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS); the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-1 C-band SAR sensor (interferometric wide swath mode; IW) and their Sentinel-2 MultiSpectral Instrument (MSI) optical sensor; the Space Agency of France’s fifth Satellite Pour l’Observation de la Terre (SPOT-5) multispectral (XS) optical sensor; and the US Geological Survey’s optical Operational Land Imager (OLI) sensor aboard the Landsat-8 satellite. Polarization for SAR sensors includes horizontal send and receive (HH), vertical send and receive (VV), and two cross-polarizations (HV and VH). Dashes (–) denote multiple images from the same sensor
Satellite | Sensor | Bands | Wavelength | Polarization | Pixel size (m) | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ALOS | Palsar-1 | 2 | 23.6 cm (L-band) | HH, HV | 12 | 6 Nov 2010 |
22 Dec 2010 | ||||||
Sentinel-1 | IW | 2 | 5.54 cm (C-band) | VV, VH | 10 | 18 May 2016 |
4 Mar 2014 | ||||||
8 Jun 2014 | ||||||
Landsat-8 | OLI | 6 | 435 to 2294 nm | – | 30 | 14 Oct 2014 |
19 Feb 2015 | ||||||
1 Dec 2015 | ||||||
Sentinel-2 | MSI | 6 | 444 to 2190 nm | – | 10, 20 | 7 May 2017 |
SPOT-5 | XS | 4 | 500 to 1750 nm | – | 10, 20 | 13 Mar 2013 |