Advanced techniques and new high resolution SAR sensors for monitoring urban areas

In the last years MultiDimensional (3D and 4D) Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) techniques, also known as SAR tomography and differential SAR tomography, are emerging in the field of coherent combination of multibaseline/multitemporal SAR data. With respect to the classical differential interferometric processing, these techniques improve the capability of detection and monitoring of the ground targets. Moreover they were proven to be effective in resolving the signal interference due to the layover effect, that may occur in areas with high density of scatterers located on vertical structures, such as urban areas. Beside the development of these advanced techniques the new generation of sensor, such as TerraSAR-X and COSMO-SKYMED with very high spatial resolution offer new perspectives in the imaging and monitoring of urban areas. In this paper we address the application of the SAR tomography to real spaceborne data. Particularly, we show and discuss the first results of the application of this technique to high resolution TerraSAR-X data.