Estimation of Radial Velocity of Moving Targets by Along-Track Interferometric SAR Systems

Along-track interferometric synthetic aperture radar (AT-InSAR) can be used to estimate the radial velocity of ground moving targets, starting from interferometric phase measures. The estimation obtained from a single-phase interferogram suffers from ambiguities. To solve these problems, multichannel AT-InSAR systems are required. In this letter, we analyze the radial velocity maximum-likelihood estimation accuracy with respect to AT-InSAR system parameters, such as velocity values and different clutter and thermal noise levels. We consider two different models for the target response: a deterministic model and a zero-mean Gaussian model. The presented results show that AT-InSAR systems exhibit better estimation accuracies for low-velocity values (slow targets).