3-D Surface Deformation Performance for Simultaneous Squinted SAR Acquisitions

Abstract

This contribution addresses the performance in the retrieval of 3-D mean deformation maps by exploiting simultaneous or quasisimultaneous squinted synthetic aperture radar (SAR) interferometric acquisitions. In multi-satellite or multi-beam low Earth observation (LEO) missions the availability of two (or more) lines of sight (LOS) allows the simultaneous acquisition of SAR images with different squint angles, hence improving the sensibility to the north-south component of the deformation. In this paper we argue that due to the simultaneity of the acquisitions the troposphere will be highly correlated, and therefore will cancel out when subtracting the different LOS measurements, hence resulting in a practically troposphere-free estimation of the along-track measurements. This contribution will show the mathematical framework to derive the performance for simultaneous squinted acquisitions and evaluates some examples in the frame of future spaceborne SAR missions at C- and L-band.