GB-SAR deformation monitoring: Performance analysis and primary experimental results

Ground-based synthetic aperture radar differential interferometer (GB D-InSAR) has already been recognized as a powerful tool, complementary to spaceborne SAR interferometry, for deformation monitoring. This application calls for rigid demand in measurement accuracy (to the degree of millimetre or even submillimeter). SAR trajectory error is one of the main factors degrading the measurement accuracy, and should be carefully considered. This paper presents GB D-InSAR experimental results of corner reflectors and the performance analysis of deformation measurement under pollution of trajectory error. A general theoretical equation for performance analysis is given and a data-based phase compensation method is proposed. The experimental result shows a good performance of deformation measurement (to the degree of 0.01mm), which further validates the effectiveness of the proposed phase compensation method and shows the possibility to carry out GB D-InSAR experiment under this experimental system.