Extraction of digital elevation model from Chinese GF-3 C-band synthetic aperture radar data with a step-wise method focusing on facilitating phase unwrapping

Haoyang Yu; Wenjian Ni; Zhongjun Zhang; Zhiyu Zhang; Guoqing Sun

doi:10.1117/1.JRS.12.035004

16 July 2018 Extraction of digital elevation model from Chinese GF-3 C-band synthetic aperture radar data with a step-wise method focusing on facilitating phase unwrapping

Haoyang Yu, Wenjian Ni, Zhongjun Zhang, Zhiyu Zhang, Guoqing Sun

Author Affiliations +

Journal of Applied Remote Sensing, Vol. 12, Issue 3, 035004 (July 2018). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JRS.12.035004

Abstract

GaoFen-3 (GF-3) is the first fully polarimetric C-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite in China. Interferometric observation is an important capability of GF-3. However, the long temporal baseline is a great challenge for repeat-pass interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) processing, especially over mountainous areas. Phase noise and complex topography make phase unwrapping difficult. This paper proposes a step-wise approach for high-resolution InSAR data processing focusing on facilitating phase unwrapping. First, the coarse GF-3 digital elevation model (DEM) is reconstructed by InSAR processing with multilooking of large looks, which is used to suppress phase noise. Second, the coarse GF-3 DEM is used to remove the terrain phase from the InSAR phase with multilooking of small looks, which can reduce phase gradient and improve the accuracy of phase unwrapping. After several iterations, the GF-3 DEM is finally inversed with multilooking of 2 looks, which is of high resolution and high accuracy. The performance of GF-3 C-band InSAR data on the extraction of DEM is examined over a deciduous forested area with the proposed method. The root-mean-square error of the extracted GF-3 DEM is 3.78 m in comparison with the LiDAR DEM.

Citation Download Citation

Haoyang Yu, Wenjian Ni, Zhongjun Zhang, Zhiyu Zhang, and Guoqing Sun "Extraction of digital elevation model from Chinese GF-3 C-band synthetic aperture radar data with a step-wise method focusing on facilitating phase unwrapping," Journal of Applied Remote Sensing 12(3), 035004 (16 July 2018). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JRS.12.035004

Received: 15 March 2018; Accepted: 27 June 2018; Published: 16 July 2018

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available

Members: $24.00

Non-members: $28.00 ADD TO CART

JOURNAL ARTICLE
17 PAGES

DOWNLOAD PAPER SAVE TO MY LIBRARY

GET CITATION

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

Get copyright permission Get copyright permission on Copyright Marketplace

KEYWORDS

Interferometric synthetic aperture radar

Synthetic aperture radar

LIDAR

Data modeling

Data processing

Interferometry

Satellites

Show All Keywords

Keywords/Phrases

Search In:

Publication Years