125 research outputs found
Fusion of Urban TanDEM-X raw DEMs using variational models
Recently, a new global Digital Elevation Model (DEM) with pixel spacing of
0.4 arcseconds and relative height accuracy finer than 2m for flat areas
(slopes 20%) was created
through the TanDEM-X mission. One important step of the chain of global DEM
generation is to mosaic and fuse multiple raw DEM tiles to reach the target
height accuracy. Currently, Weighted Averaging (WA) is applied as a fast and
simple method for TanDEM-X raw DEM fusion in which the weights are computed
from height error maps delivered from the Interferometric TanDEM-X Processor
(ITP). However, evaluations show that WA is not the perfect DEM fusion method
for urban areas especially in confrontation with edges such as building
outlines. The main focus of this paper is to investigate more advanced
variational approaches such as TV-L1 and Huber models. Furthermore, we also
assess the performance of variational models for fusing raw DEMs produced from
data takes with different baseline configurations and height of ambiguities.
The results illustrate the high efficiency of variational models for TanDEM-X
raw DEM fusion in comparison to WA. Using variational models could improve the
DEM quality by up to 2m particularly in inner-city subsets.Comment: This is the pre-acceptance version, to read the final version, please
go to IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and
Remote Sensing on IEEE Xplor
Fusion of Interferometric SAR and Photogrammetric Elevation Data
Neurology & clinical neurophysiolog
High-accuracy digital elevation model generation and ship monitoring from synthetic aperture radar images: innovative techniques and experimental results.
In this Thesis several state-of-the-art and innovative techniques for Digital Elevation Model (DEM) generation from Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images are deeply analyzed, with a special focus on the methods which allow the improvement of the accuracy of the DEM product, which is directly related to the geolocation accuracy of geocoded images and is considered as an enabling factor for a large series of civilian and Defence applications. Furthermore, some of the proposed techniques, which are based both on phase and amplitude information, are experimented on real data, i.e. COSMO-SkyMed (CSK) data, assessing the achievable performances compared with the state-of-the-art, and pointing out and quantitatively highlighting the acquisition and processing strategies which would allow to maximize the quality of the results. Moreover, a critical analysis is performed about the main errors affecting the applied techniques, as well as the limitations of the orbital configurations, identifying several complementary techniques which would allow to overcome or mitigate the observed drawbacks. An innovative procedure for on-demand DEM production from CSK SAR data is elaborated and proposed, as well as an auto-validation technique which would enable the validation of the produced DEM also where vertical ground truths are not available. Based on the obtained results and on the consequent critical analysis, several interferometric specifications for new generation SAR satellites are identified. Finally, a literature review is proposed about the main state-of-the-art ship monitoring techniques, considered as one of the main fields of application which takes benefit from SAR data, based on single/multi-platform multi-channel SAR data, with a focus on TanDEM-X (TDX).
In particular, in Chapter 1 the main concepts concerning SAR operating principles are introduced and the main characteristics and performances of CSK and TDX satellite systems are described; in Chapter 2 a review is proposed about the state-of-the-art SAR interferometric techniques for DEM generation, analyzing all the relevant processing steps and deepening the study of the main solutions recently proposed in the literature to increase the accuracy of the interferometric processing; in Chapter 3 complementary and innovative techniques respect to the interferometric processing are analyzed to mitigate disadvantages and to improve performances; in Chapter 4 experimental results are presented, obtained in the generation of high accuracy DEM by applying to a dataset of CSK images properly selected state-of-the-art interferometric techniques and innovative methods to improve DEM accuracy, exploring relevant limitations, and pointing out innovative acquisition and processing strategies. In Chapter 5, the basic principles of Ground Moving Target Indication (GMTI) are described, focusing on Displaced Phase Center Antenna (DPCA) and Along-Track Interferometry (ATI) techniques
Simultaneous Estimation of Sub-canopy Topography and Forest Height with Single-baseline Single-polarization TanDEM-X Interferometric Data Combined with ICESat-2 Data
To address the challenge of retrieving sub-canopy topography using single-baseline single-polarization TanDEM-X InSAR data, we propose a novel InSAR processing framework. Our methodology begins by employing the SINC model to estimate the penetration depth (PD). Subsequently, we establish a linear relationship between PD and phase center height (PCH) to generate a wall-to-wall PCH product. To achieve this, space-borne LiDAR data are employed to capture the elevation bias between actual ground elevation and InSAR-derived elevation. Finally, the sub-canopy topography is derived by subtracting the PCH from the conventional InSAR-based DEM. Moreover, this approach enables the simultaneous estimation of forest height from single-baseline TanDEM-X data by combining the estimated PD and PCH components. The approach has been validated against Airborne Lidar Scanning data over four diverse sites encompassing different forest types, terrain conditions, and climates. The derived sub-canopy topography in the boreal and hemi-boreal forest sites (Krycklan and Remningstorp) demonstrated notable improvement in accuracy. Additionally, the winter acquisitions outperformed the summer ones in terms of inversion accuracy. The achieved RMSEs for the winter scenarios were 2.45 m and 3.83 m, respectively, representing a 50% improvement over the InSAR-based DEMs. And the forest heights are also close to the ALS measurements, with RMSEs of 2.70 m and 3.33 m, respectively. For the Yanguas site in Spain, characterized by rugged terrain, sub-canopy topography in forest areas was estimated with an accuracy of 4.27m, a 35% improvement over the original DEM. For the denser tropical forest site, only an average elevation bias could be corrected.This work is funded by the National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2022YFB3902605), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 42227801, 42030112, 42204024, 42104016, 42330717), the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (State Agency of Research, AEI) and the European Funds for Regional Development under Project PID2020-117303GB-C22/AEI/10.13039/501100011033, the Natural Science Foundation for Excellent Young Scholars of Hunan Province (No. 2023JJ20061), and in part by the China Scholarship Council Foundation to the Joint Ph.D. Studies at University of Alicante (No. 202106370125)
Volcano monitoring with bistatic TanDEM-X SAR interferometry
Das Ziel der Dissertation ist die Untersuchung der Nutzbarkeit der Daten der TanDEM-X-Satellitenmission in der Vulkanforschung. Dabei wird die Topographie vor, wĂ€hrend und nach einem vulkanologischen Ereignis abgebildet. Anhand einer differentiellen Analyse der abgeleiteten DEMs können topographische und volumetrische Ănderungen quantifiziert werden. Als Untersuchungsgebiete dienen der Merapi in Indonesien, der VolcĂĄn de Colima in Mexico und der Tolbachik in Kamtschatka, Russland
Elevation and Deformation Extraction from TomoSAR
3D SAR tomography (TomoSAR) and 4D SAR differential tomography (Diff-TomoSAR) exploit multi-baseline SAR data stacks to provide an essential innovation of SAR Interferometry for many applications, sensing complex scenes with multiple scatterers mapped into the same SAR pixel cell. However, these are still influenced by DEM uncertainty, temporal decorrelation, orbital, tropospheric and ionospheric phase distortion and height blurring. In this thesis, these techniques are explored. As part of this exploration, the systematic procedures for DEM generation, DEM quality assessment, DEM quality improvement and DEM applications are first studied. Besides, this thesis focuses on the whole cycle of systematic methods for 3D & 4D TomoSAR imaging for height and deformation retrieval, from the problem formation phase, through the development of methods to testing on real SAR data. After DEM generation introduction from spaceborne bistatic InSAR (TanDEM-X) and airborne photogrammetry (Bluesky), a new DEM co-registration method with line feature validation (river network line, ridgeline, valley line, crater boundary feature and so on) is developed and demonstrated to assist the study of a wide area DEM data quality. This DEM co-registration method aligns two DEMs irrespective of the linear distortion model, which improves the quality of DEM vertical comparison accuracy significantly and is suitable and helpful for DEM quality assessment. A systematic TomoSAR algorithm and method have been established, tested, analysed and demonstrated for various applications (urban buildings, bridges, dams) to achieve better 3D & 4D tomographic SAR imaging results. These include applying Cosmo-Skymed X band single-polarisation data over the Zipingpu dam, Dujiangyan, Sichuan, China, to map topography; and using ALOS L band data in the San Francisco Bay region to map urban building and bridge. A new ionospheric correction method based on the tile method employing IGS TEC data, a split-spectrum and an ionospheric model via least squares are developed to correct ionospheric distortion to improve the accuracy of 3D & 4D tomographic SAR imaging. Meanwhile, a pixel by pixel orbit baseline estimation method is developed to address the research gaps of baseline estimation for 3D & 4D spaceborne SAR tomography imaging. Moreover, a SAR tomography imaging algorithm and a differential tomography four-dimensional SAR imaging algorithm based on compressive sensing, SAR interferometry phase (InSAR) calibration reference to DEM with DEM error correction, a new phase error calibration and compensation algorithm, based on PS, SVD, PGA, weighted least squares and minimum entropy, are developed to obtain accurate 3D & 4D tomographic SAR imaging results. The new baseline estimation method and consequent TomoSAR processing results showed that an accurate baseline estimation is essential to build up the TomoSAR model. After baseline estimation, phase calibration experiments (via FFT and Capon method) indicate that a phase calibration step is indispensable for TomoSAR imaging, which eventually influences the inversion results. A super-resolution reconstruction CS based study demonstrates X band data with the CS method does not fit for forest reconstruction but works for reconstruction of large civil engineering structures such as dams and urban buildings. Meanwhile, the L band data with FFT, Capon and the CS method are shown to work for the reconstruction of large manmade structures (such as bridges) and urban buildings
Measuring decadal vertical land-level changes from SRTM-C (2000) and TanDEM-X (âŒâ2015) in the south-central Andes
In the arctic and high mountains it is common to measure vertical changes of
ice sheets and glaciers via digital elevation model (DEM) differencing. This
requires the signal of change to outweigh the noise associated with the
datasets. Excluding large landslides, on the ice-free earth the land-level change
is smaller in vertical magnitude and thus requires more accurate DEMs for
differencing and identification of change. Previously, this has required
meter to submeter data at small spatial scales. Following careful
corrections, we are able to measure land-level changes in gravel-bed channels
and steep hillslopes in the south-central Andes using the SRTM-C (collected
in 2000) and the TanDEM-X (collected from 2010 to 2015) near-global 12â30 m
DEMs. Long-standing errors in the SRTM-C are corrected using the TanDEM-X as
a control surface and applying cosine-fit co-registration to remove
âŒâ1â10 pixel (âŒâ3 m) shifts, fast Fourier transform (FFT) and filtering to
remove SRTM-C short- and long-wavelength stripes, and blocked shifting to
remove remaining complex biases. The datasets are then differenced and
outlier pixels are identified as a potential signal for the case of gravel-bed
channels and hillslopes. We are able to identify signals of incision and
aggradation (with magnitudes down to âŒâ3 m in the best case) in two
â>â100 km river reaches, with increased geomorphic activity downstream of
knickpoints. Anthropogenic gravel excavation and piling is prominently
measured, with magnitudes exceeding ±5 m (up to â>â10 m for large
piles). These values correspond to conservative average rates of 0.2Â to
>â0.5 m yrâ1 for vertical changes in gravel-bed rivers. For
hillslopes, since we require stricter cutoffs for noise, we are only able to
identify one major landslide in the study area with a deposit volume of
16 ± 0.15 × 106 m3. Additional signals of change can be
garnered from TanDEM-X auxiliary layers; however, these are more difficult to
quantify. The methods presented can be extended to any region of the world
with SRTM-C and TanDEM-X coverage where vertical land-level changes are of
interest, with the caveat that remaining vertical uncertainties in primarily
the SRTM-C limit detection in steep and complex topography.</p
Synergetic use of Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 for assessments of heathland conservation status
Habitat quality assessments often demand wallâtoâwall information about the state of vegetation. Remote sensing can provide this information by capturing optical and structural attributes of plant communities. Although active and passive remote sensing approaches are considered as complementary techniques, they have been rarely combined for conservation mapping. Here, we combined spaceborne multispectral Sentinelâ2 and Sentinelâ1 SAR data for a remote sensingâbased habitat quality assessment of dwarf shrub heathland, which was inspired by nature conservation field guidelines. Therefore, three earlier proposed quality layers representing (1) the coverage of the key dwarf shrub species, (2) stand structural diversity and (3) an index reflecting coâoccurring vegetation were mapped via linking in situ data and remote sensing imagery. These layers were combined in an RGBârepresentation depicting varying stand attributes, which afterwards allowed for a ruleâbased derivation of pixelâwise habitat quality classes. The links between field observations and remote sensing data reached correlations between 0.70 and 0.94 for modeling the single quality layers. The spatial patterns shown in the quality layers and the map of discrete quality classes were in line with the field observations. The remote sensingâbased mapping of heathland conservation status showed an overall agreement of 76% with field data. Transferring the approach in time (applying a second set of Sentinelâ1 and â2 data) caused a decrease in accuracy to 73%. Our findings suggest that Sentinelâ1 SAR contains information about vegetation structure that is complimentary to optical data and therefore relevant for nature conservation. While we think that ruleâbased approaches for quality assessments offer the possibility for gaining acceptance in both communities applied conservation and remote sensing, there is still need for developing more robust and transferable methods
Radar Interferometry for Monitoring Crustal Deformation. Geodetic Applications in Greece
The chapatti and breadmaking quality of nine (eight Indian and one Australian) wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars was compared. The extension of a chapatti strip measured with a Kieffer dough extensibility rig correlated with chapatti scores for overall quality (r = 0.84), pliability (r = 0.91), hand feel (r = 0.72), chapatti eating quality (r = 0.68), and taste (r = 0.80). Overall chapatti quality also correlated with the resistance to extension of a chapatti strip (r = 0.68) when tested for uniaxial extension with a texture analyzer. The texture analyzer provided objectivity in the scoring of chapatti quality. The high-molecular-weight glutenin subunit protein composition assessed by sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis did not correlate with the overall chapatti score. A negative correlation was found between chapatti and bread scores (r = 0.77). The different requirements for chapatti and bread quality complicate the breeding of new wheat varieties and the exchange of germplasm between regions producing wheat for chapatti and those supplying bread producers
The BIOMASS level 2 prototype processor : design and experimental results of above-ground biomass estimation
BIOMASS is ESAâs seventh Earth Explorer mission, scheduled for launch in 2022. The satellite will be the first P-band SAR sensor in space and will be operated in fully polarimetric interferometric and tomographic modes. The mission aim is to map forest above-ground biomass (AGB), forest height (FH) and severe forest disturbance (FD) globally with a particular focus on tropical forests. This paper presents the algorithms developed to estimate these biophysical parameters from the BIOMASS level 1 SAR measurements and their implementation in the BIOMASS level 2 prototype processor with a focus on the AGB product. The AGB product retrieval uses a physically-based inversion model, using ground-canceled level 1 data as input. The FH product retrieval applies a classical PolInSAR inversion, based on the Random Volume over Ground Model (RVOG). The FD product will provide an indication of where significant changes occurred within the forest, based on the statistical properties of SAR data. We test the AGB retrieval using modified airborne P-Band data from the AfriSAR and TropiSAR campaigns together with reference data from LiDAR-based AGB maps and plot-based ground measurements. For AGB estimation based on data from a single heading, comparison with reference data yields relative Root Mean Square Difference (RMSD) values mostly between 20% and 30%. Combining different headings in the estimation process significantly improves the AGB retrieval to slightly less than 20%. The experimental results indicate that the implemented retrieval scheme provides robust results that are within mission requirements
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