Simulating L-band emission of forests in view of future satellite applications

The microwave model developed at the Tor Vergata University is used to simulate the emissivity of forests, in order to study the performance of an L-band spaceborne radiometer, similar to that carried by the Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity mission. The model is first validated, and the importance of a correct vegetation growth parametrization in the modeling procedure is pointed out. This model is also used to calibrate a simple zero-order radiative transfer model, since simple models have been recognized to be useful in retrieval applications at a global scale. In this paper, we show that although a zero-order approximation cannot be directly used for forests, a simple formulation may be applied, provided the albedo and the optical depth are defined as equivalent parameters.