Multi-temporal High-Resolution SAR for Geometric Measurements and for Ground Deformation Monitoring

Abstract

Multi-temporal High-resolution SAR for Geometric Measurements and for Ground Deformation Monitoring Michael Eineder, Remote Sensing Technology Institute, DLR The geometric accuracy and especially the phase of each pixel are unique features of SAR imagery. And these features are especially valuable when multi-temporal observations are available. Geometric distances can be measured with centimeter accuracy in detected SAR images allowing the location of scattering objects and their motion in 3 dimensions. If the phase is exploited, even sub-millimetric differences can be measured relatively between points. Furthermore, 3D point clouds can be generated from tomographic analysis of multi-baseline data stacks. DLR is operating two high-resolution SAR satellites, TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X in repeat-pass and in an interferometric stereo-configuration. The authors have developed methods to fully exploit the geometric accuracy of high-resolution SAR and InSAR data for a variety of applications such as • DEM generation, • differential DEM analysis over vegetation and volcanos, • imaging geodesy measurements for geodetic and for cryosphere applications, • land subsidence and earthquake motion analysis, • tomographic analysis of urban areas. The talk sketches some novel methods and shows application results of high resolution TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X data.