Measuring forest vitality with radar remote sensing

In the past few years, Sweden’s forests have experienced unprecedented levels of degradation due to ecological stress, fires and insect damage. These effects are a consequence of unusually hot summers due to our changing climate.

New techniques for monitoring forest health are necessary to proactively manage forests and to sustain the environmental and economic value of Sweden’s forests.

Recent advances in radar remote sensing of forests have shown that information about the biological activity of forests can be observed using radars.

With world-leading radar and forest research infrastructures in Sweden, methods for monitoring forest vitality using radar data can be developed.

In the proposed project, high-quality, co-located radar, ecological, atmospheric and hydrological data will be collected.

The data will be used to gain a quantitative, systems-based understanding of how ecological processes, forest disturbances and radar observations are coupled at timescales of minutes to years.

The work in this project will lead to more efficient and cost-saving forest management practices based on radar remote sensing.