Quantification and compensation of temporal decorrelation effects in polarimetric SAR interferometry

Temporal decorrelation is a critical issue for a successful Pol-InSAR inversion in case of repeat-pass SAR data, as provided by conventional satellite or airborne SAR systems. This paper proposes estimation and compensation of temporal decorrelation effects by using multi-baseline Pol-InSAR data. A new approach to quantify different temporal decorrelation levels (one for volume and the other for the ground layer) is performed without resort to the special case of zero spatial baseline interferograms. Both temporal decorrelation coefficients were separately estimated at temporal baselines ranging from 1 to 15 days and compared to height inversion errors caused by them.