DSM generation from optical and SAR high resolution satellite imagery: Methodology, problems and potentialities

The actual high resolution optical and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite sensors offer interesting potentialities for Digital Surface Models (DSMs) generation. Both optical and SAR imagery are characterized by proper deformations and noise due to the different acquisition geometries and processes, which have to be duly taken into account during the DSM generation procedure in order to fully exploit the aforementioned potentialities. The aim of this work is to evaluate the performances of high resolution optical and SAR imagery for DSMs generation over the same testfield area where a dense network of GCPs and LiDAR DSM are available as ground truth data. The image processing and DSMs generation are carried out with the packages SISAR (Software Immagini Satellitari ad Alta Risoluzione) and SAT-PP (SATellite image Precision Processing) while an additional comparison is performed using PCI Geomatica 2012.