Modelling scattering albedo of trees from 1 to 37 ghz and its application to vod retrieval

This study focuses on modelling the scattering albedo of a vegetation canopy, which can be used in vegetation opacity depth (VOD) retrieval, over a wide frequency range (1-37 GHz). In this study, boreal tree canopy has been used as an example. A discrete scatter model has been implemented to calculate single scattering albedo and vegetation opacity depth (VOD) of a single-layer canopy consisting of a variety type of scatterers. For a more realistic parameterization, a novel tree structure model has been developed to quantify the vertical structure of a forest. For the first time, we combined the discrete scatter model with the multi-layer 2Stream model to calculate the brightness temperature of the tree canopy based on its vertical structure. This research provides a comprehensive forward modelling tool that can be parameterized with different vegetation types (e.g. tree, crops and grass) and parameters (e.g. height, density, soil condition and vertical water content distribution). The model can be used in retrieval algorithm to find effective scattering albedo and VOD over a wide range of frequencies.