Bayesian DEM Reconstruction from SAR and Optical Data

Interferometric SAR (InSAR) systems are able to estimate height profiles of the Earth surface. For the involved estimation problem, Maximum A Posteriori (MAP) statistical technique and Markov Random Field image models have been used, showing to be effective in case of multiple interferograms, obtained via different baselines/frequencies. In this paper, we are interested in the application of such estimation procedure in urban areas, where due to SAR geometry, many geometrical distortions appear. In particular, we focus on the layover problem. We present a procedure to manage layover areas, based on the optical and SAR data fusion. Moreover, we exploit the optical data to improve the a priori term of the MAP approach. We test the method on simulated data, showing the effectiveness of the method.