Vector-based approach for combining ascending and descending persistent scatterers interferometric point measurements

Abstract

The combination of ascending and descending persistent scatterers interferometric (PSI) data by means of resampling and/or spatial interpolation, separately for each synthetic aperture radar geometry, is a commonly followed procedure, limited though by the reduced spatial coverage and the introduced uncertainties from multiple rasterization steps. Herein, an alternative approach is proposed for combining different PSI line-of-sight observables in the vector domain, based on the geographic proximity of PS point targets. In the proposed nearest neighbour vector approach all necessary analysis steps are performed by means of attributes transfer and calculations between features geodatabases, prior to any rasterization. By increasing the number of input point vectors during subsequent interpolation, the overall error budget coming from spatial interpolation is being reduced. The advantages of the proposed vector-based approach compared to the commonly used grid-based procedure are being demonstrated using real data.