Abstract
Interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) has become a key technology for producing high-precision digital surface models (DSMs) and digital orthophoto maps (DOMs) in full time and all weathers. Airborne millimeter-wave InSAR, with large-scale and high-resolution imaging, is characterized by high spatial resolution, flexibility, and immunity to loss-of-correlation. This paper introduces our modeling experiments with airborne dual-antenna, Ka-band InSAR regarding typical topographies of China. Ka-band SAR data were acquired in designated experimental areas in flat (Heyang area in Shaanxi) and mountainous areas (Shibing area in Guizhou and Qionglai area in Sichuan). The key processing of the experimental data for DSMs and DOMs is demonstrated in the paper, especially the proposed robust and efficient phase unwrapping (PU) method for the interferometric data and block adjustment method of strip calibration. The results show that the proposed unwrapping method can provide reliable unwrapped phase results in undulating areas, and the block adjustment can carry out consistent calibration for strips with sparse ground control points (GCPs). The accuracy assessment of the DSM shows that the coordinate root mean square error (RSME) of the obtained DSM is less than 2 m in height, and 2.5 m horizontally, which meets the 1:5000 requirement for topographic mapping in difficult areas.
Highlights
Introduction published maps and institutional affilTraditional field surveying and mapping are time-consuming and labor-intensive, and unsuitable for obtaining large-scale digital surface models (DSMs) and digital orthophoto maps (DOMs)
The main process of airborne Interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) data is divided into three parts, including interference processing within single look complex (SLC) scenes, global adjustment of interferometric parameters based on sparse ground control points (GCPs) and tie points (TPs) between SLC scenes, and generation of a DSM and DOM based on the calibrated parameters
Since the aircraft carries position and orientation system (POS), the height of the master antenna phase center and the slant range can be accurately calculated, and the pitch angle error is of little effect and is ignorable in a single scene
Summary
The three experimental sites include the Heyang, Shibing, and Qionglai areas. The terrain of the experimental area is mainly plains, including towns and farmland. The Shibing experimental area is located in Shibing County in southeastern Guizhou Province. The terrain of the experimental area is relatively rugged, with mountains, towns, roads, farmland, forests, etc. The longitude and latitude ranges of the experimental area are 103.140◦ E~103.283◦ E, 30.319◦ N~30.493◦ N and 21.27 km by 2.56 km. The terrain of the experimental area is rather rugged and undulating, with high mountains, towns, and farmland.
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