Traffic Data Collection with TerraSAR-X and Performance Evaluation

Abstract

As the amount of traffic has dramatically increased over the last years, traffic monitoring and traffic data collection have become more and more important. The acquisition of traffic data in almost real-time is essential to immediately react to current traffic situations. Stationary data collectors such as induction loops and video cameras mounted on bridges or traffic lights are matured methods. However, they only provide local data and are not able to observe the traffic situation in a large road network. Hence, traffic monitoring approaches relying on airborne and space-borne remote sensing come into play. Especially space-borne sensors do cover very large areas, even though image acquisition is strictly restricted to certain time slots predetermined by the respective orbit parameters. Space-borne systems thus contribute to the periodic collection of statistical traffic data in order to validate and improve traffic models. On the other hand, the concepts developed for space-borne imagery can be easily transferred to future HALE (High Altitude Long Endurance) systems, which show great potential to meet the demands of both temporal flexibility and spatial coverage.