Abstract
Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery has long been used in archaeology since the earliest space radar missions in the 1980s. In the current scenario of SAR missions, the Italian Space Agency (ASI)’s COnstellation of small Satellites for Mediterranean basin Observation (COSMO-SkyMed) has peculiar properties that make this mission of potential use by archaeologists and heritage practitioners: high to very high spatial resolution, site revisit of up to one day, and conspicuous image archives over cultural heritage sites across the globe. While recent literature and the number of research projects using COSMO-SkyMed data for science and applied research suggest a growing interest in these data, it is felt that COSMO-SkyMed still needs to be further disseminated across the archaeological remote sensing community. This paper therefore offers a portfolio of use-cases that were developed in the last two years in the Scientific Research Unit of ASI, where COSMO-SkyMed data were analysed to study and monitor cultural landscapes and heritage sites. SAR-based applications in archaeological and cultural heritage sites in Peru, Syria, Italy, and Iraq, provide evidence on how subsurface and buried features can be detected by interpreting SAR backscatter, its spatial and temporal changes, and interferometric coherence, and how SAR-derived digital elevation models (DEM) can be used to survey surface archaeological features. The use-cases also showcase how high temporal revisit SAR time series can support environmental monitoring of land surface processes, and condition assessment of archaeological heritage and landscape disturbance due to anthropogenic impact (e.g., agriculture, mining, looting). For the first time, this paper provides an overview of the capabilities of COSMO-SkyMed imagery in StripMap Himage and Spotlight-2 mode to support archaeological studies, with the aim to encourage remote sensing scientists and archaeologists to search for and exploit these data for their investigations and research activities. Furthermore, some considerations are made with regard to the perspectives opened by the upcoming launch of ASI’s COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation constellation.
Highlights
Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging systems, either space-borne or ground-based, are increasingly used for studies of archaeological landscapes, archaeological prospection and condition assessment of cultural heritage [1]
The peculiar penetration capability of longer microwave wavelengths was crucial to reveal hidden features and palaeo-landscapes in different environments across the world [12,13]. Despite this body of literature and the recent publication of reviews outlining the value of SAR for archaeology [1,2,14] and thematic special issues in specialist journals [15], SAR imagery and its derived products based on interferometric SAR (InSAR) or change detection methods are not used as much as optical imagery at very high spatial resolution and digital elevation models (DEM) generated from airborne LiDAR or stereoscopic pairs
Factors of threat and encroachment that were included according to classification schemes that are currently used by archaeologists and cultural heritage practitioners (e.g., [35]), are: agriculture and expansion of agricultural land, mining activities, infrastructure development and use, as well as archaeological looting
Summary
Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging systems, either space-borne or ground-based, are increasingly used for studies of archaeological landscapes, archaeological prospection and condition assessment of cultural heritage [1]. The peculiar penetration capability of longer microwave wavelengths (i.e., higher penetration with wavelengths of 15–30 cm in L-band than 2.5–3.75 cm in X-band) was crucial to reveal hidden features and palaeo-landscapes in different environments across the world [12,13] Despite this body of literature and the recent publication of reviews outlining the value of SAR for archaeology [1,2,14] and thematic special issues in specialist journals [15], SAR imagery and its derived products based on InSAR or change detection methods are not used as much as optical imagery at very high spatial resolution and digital elevation models (DEM) generated from airborne LiDAR or stereoscopic pairs. The improvements of the second generation compared to the current COSMO-SkyMed constellation will provide enhanced functionalities that could potentially generate significant impact on archaeological studies and cultural heritage applications
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