The ESA METAWAVE project: Correcting for atmospheric water vapour effects in InSAR products

In many cases, the largest uncertainty in synthetic aperture radar interferometry (InSAR) is a range delay caused by the presence of atmospheric water vapour resulting in a phase disturbance. This limits the accuracy of InSAR products such as digital elevation models (DEMs) and terrain subsidence maps. The quality of these products could be dramatically improved if atmospheric water vapour effects could be corrected for. The ESA METAWAVE (mitigation of electromagnetic transmission errors induced by atmospheric water vapour effects) project primarily aims at improving the accuracy of InSAR products by correcting for atmospheric effects in novel ways.