Precise Motion Compensation for Very High Resolution Repeat-Pass Airborne SAR Interferometry in the Presence of High Topography Variations

Abstract

Motion compensation (MoCom) is one of the most critical processing steps for airborne SAR focusing. The high demands concerning the accuracy of motion compensation originate from applications like multibaseline polarimetric SAR interferometry, SAR tomography as well as differential SAR interferometry. During the recent years the airborne E-SAR system of DLR-HR has been operated mainly in these modes. For the E-SAR system an accurate and precise topography and aperture dependent MoCom algorithm (PTA) was developed. However, the future data supply for the development of novel SAR techniques and applications will be provided by the new F-SAR system offering improved spatial resolution, simultaneous acquisition in up to 3 frequency bands and in future also single-pass interferometry in X- and S-band. The objective of this thesis is to re-investigate the PTA approach for MoCom, in order to develop and implement an algorithm that overcomes the limitations established for the E-SAR system, and extending the correction to a 2D approach.