Frequency coherent vs. temporally coherent targets

The Multi-Chromatic Analysis (MCA) uses interferometric pairs of SAR images processed at range sub-bands and explores the phase trend of each pixel as a function of the different central carrier frequencies. The MCA technique introduces the concept of targets exhibiting stable radar returns across the frequency domain (PS_fd). In this work we compare this stability along frequencies with the temporal stability which is at the base of persistent scatterers interferometry (PSI) techniques. Different populations of PS_fd and “temporal” PS were derived by using COSMO-SkyMed SAR data. An ad hoc processing scheme was developed to derive PSI products by processing the same range sub-bandwidth used by the MCA in order to guarantee the same scattering conditions. The populations of PS_fd and “temporal” PS were compared and preliminary considerations provided concerning the scattering properties of the targets selected by the two criteria.