SAR tomography development for Radarsat-2

Presently, a standard SAR image is obtained using two dimensional information acquired in a single pass monostatic acquisition. The third dimension of the image is folded in the 2D space based on the range information. With the availability of large datasets acquired with high resolution and from slightly different positions it was shown that amplitude and phase variation of persistent targets can be mapped to the relative target position within the pixel. Persistent Scatterers Interferometry solved the mapping problem for singe targets and Tomography is trying to solve it for multiple targets per pixel. Current challenges for the tomographic techniques are the insufficient and irregular baselines spread supplied by SAR missions not designed with this particular application in mind. Based on SAR sensor and orbits parameters, each mission has different tomographic capabilities. This SOAR-DLR project will explore the tomographic capabilities of Radarsat-2 in comparison and eventually in synergy with TerraSAR-X.