Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry with 3 satellites

Our study investigates interferometric SAR (InSAR) post-processing height retrieval techniques. We explore the possible improvements by adding a third satellite to the two already in orbit, and examine some potential uses of this setup. As such, we investigate three methods for height retrieval and compare their results with the original 2-satellite method. The first approach is data averaging; a simple method that extends from the results obtained using the 2-satellite method. The 3 sets of data obtained per sampling look are grouped into pairs, and the 2 statistical best pairs are selected to be averaged, producing a better estimate of the digital elevation map (DEM) height. The second approach is the unambiguous range magnification (URM) method, which seeks to ease the reliance on phase unwrapping steps often necessary in retrieving height. It does so by expanding the wrapped phase range without performing any phase unwrapping, through the use of different wrapping speeds of the 3 sets of satellite pairings. The third method is the maximum likelihood estimation technique, an asymptotically efficient method which employs the same phase expansion property as the URM to predict the closest phase estimate which best fits most (if not all) of the data sets provided.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2005

Author dc:creator

• Wong, Wallace D. (Wallace Dazheng)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Jin Au Kong and Bae-Ian Wu.

• Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/34120

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/34120