First Polarimetric and Interferometric Results from ALOS-PalSAR

Abstract

The launch of JAXA's ALOS in January 2006 provides − for the fist time since the SIR−C/X−SAR mission's in the 80's − the opportunity to acquire Pol−InSAR data from space. Indeed, PalSAR (i.e. the SAR instrument onboard of ALOS) is able to operate in a Quad−pol mode − declared by JAXA as an "Experimental Mode" − that allows the acquisition of Pol−InSAR data in a repeat−pass mode. In this sense, ALOS−PalSAR allows the application, validation and development of Pol−InSAR inversion techniques on a much wider range of sites distributed world−wide and accessible to a much wider scientific user community than possible with airborne sensors. In this paper we present the analysis of early polarimetric or/and interferometric data sets acquired by ALOS/PalSAR during its CAL−VAL phase and discuss the potential as well as the limitations for different potential polarimetric and polarimetric interferometric applications. The impact of critical mission and operation design paremeters as Spatial Coverage, Repeat−Pass Time, Observation scenario, and Orbit Control are evaluated and discussed. 1