Obtaining digital elevation data in different terrain and physiognomy regions with spaceborne InSAR and its applica-tion analysis

Abstract

Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry (for short, InSAR) is a new kind of earth observation technology, which has obtained great development in recent ten years and has a great development potential and successful future. In this note, three typical regions with different physiognomies and terrains have been selected as study regions to extract their Digital Elevation Model (DEMs). Compared with the existing 1: 250000 DEM and by analyzing their results, we have obtained its accuracy and applicable scopes. The results show that in the region (plains, mountains or highlands) with dry surface and sparse vegetation, because of the better correlatability of images, the DEM obtained by InSAR is evidently better than the existing 1: 250000 DEM and the accuracy can reach 4–6 m; in the thick-vegetation-covering region, correlatability between images descends and the accuracy of InSAR DEM can only reach about 30 m worse than its existing 1: 250000 DEM; in the middle covering field, the accuracy of InSAR DEM with tandem images can reach about 10 m as well; yet in water space, such as lakes and rivers, InSAR DEM shows a big error since there is only quite faint signal reflected to the sensor. Then the conclusion has been got: in the west of China, where it has a lack-vegetation and dry ground, InSAR is completely feasible to be applied to such a complicated nature environment region.