WaCoRe

*WaCoRe - Woody Plant Water Content Assessment via Microwave Corner Reflection

Poster preview of WaCoRe project from ESA BioSpace25 conference is HERE

About

The aim of the project is to develop a new method for monitoring forest stands using microwave satellite sensing with artificial or natural corner reflectors. This method can be used in the future to make more accurate estimates of moisture content, water potential, health, biomass and many other parameters of forests anywhere in the world.

Also this is a one of rare possibility how to directli measure Vegetation Optical Depth (VOD). VOD is a remote sensing parameter describing signal attenuation by vegetation in the microwave domain. Variations in VOD contain information about changes in canopy water content, vegetation responses to stress factors, reflect phenological dynamics, biomass, vegetation water content, or canopy structure. Unfortunately, validating VOD remains challenging due to the lack of direct ground-truth data, so it is common practice to evaluate its performance through spatiotemporal comparisons with relevant vegetation proxy variables. In our project, we developed an innovative corner reflector design specifically for forest microwave satellite observations. We verified the geometry using theoretical reflection simulations at several frequencies for future applications with the Sentinel-1 (5.405 GHz), TanDEM-X (9.65 GHz), and NISAR (L-band: 1.257 GHz / 3.2 GHz) missions. Based on these theoretical assumptions, we subsequently constructed four prototypes and deployed them in mature forest stands in Germany and the Czech Republic. To evaluate the maximum forest canopy density that can still be measured using our corner reflectors, we also conducted an artificial shading experiment. The results demonstrate the capability of corner reflectors to measure VOD, as well as the limitations of current prototypes and recommendations for future applications.

News

What a fantastic week at ESA #Biospace25! 🚀🌍 Great discussions, inspiring talks, and the chance to reconnect with old friends while meeting new ones in the EO & environment community. Excited to have presented my WaCoRe project—a poster preview here: panmoravec.github.io/images/Biosp...

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— David Moravec (@panmoravec.bsky.social) February 14, 2025 at 1:42 PM