Search Results (21)

In this study, we investigate the usefulness of the spectral whitening procedure, devised by one of the authors as a preprocessing stage of envelope-detected single-look synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images, in application contexts where phase information is relevant. In the first experiment, each of the raw datasets of an interferometric pair of COSMO-SkyMed images, representing industrial buildings amidst vegetated areas, was individually (1) synthesized by the SAR processor without Fourier-domain Hamming windowing; (2) synthesized with Hamming windowing, used to improve the focalization of targets, with the drawback of spatially correlating speckle; and (3) processed for the whitening of complex speckle, using the data obtained in (2). The interferograms were produced in the three cases, and interferometric coherence and phase maps were calculated through 3 × 3 boxcar filtering. In (1), coherence is low on vegetation; the presence of high sidelobes in the system’s point-spread function (PSF) causes the spread of areas featuring high backscattering. In (2), point targets and buildings are better defined, thanks to the sidelobe suppression achieved by the frequency windowing, but the background coherence is abnormally increased because of the spatial correlation introduced by the Hamming window. Case (3) is the most favorable because the whitening operation results in low coherence in vegetation and high coherence in buildings, where the effects of windowing are preserved. An analysis of the phase map reveals that (3) is likely to be facilitated also in terms of unwrapping. Results are presented on a TerraSAR-X/TanDEM-X (TSX-TDX) image pair by processing the interferograms of original and whitened data using a non-local filter. The main results are as follows: (1) with autocorrelated speckle, the estimation error of coherence may attain 16% and inversely depends on the heterogeneity of the scene; and (2) the cleanness and accuracy of the phase are increased by the preliminary whitening stage, as witnessed by the number of residues, reduced by 24%. Benefits are also expected not only for differential InSAR (DInSAR) but also for any coherent analysis and processing carried out performed on SLC data. Full article

The Arctic is experiencing the greatest increase in air temperature on Earth. This significant climatic change is leading to a significant positive trend of increasing wave heights and greater coastal erosion. This in turn effects local economies and ecosystems. Increasing wave energy is one of the main drivers of this alarming trend. However, the data on spatial and temporal patterns of wave heights in the Arctic are either coarse, interpolated or limited to point measurements. The aim of this study is to overcome this shortcoming by using remote sensing data. In this study, the Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite TerraSAR-X (TS-X) and TanDEM-X (TD-X) imagery are used to obtain sea state information with a high spatial resolution in Arctic nearshore waters in the Canadian Beaufort Sea. From the entire archive of the TS-X/TD-X StripMap mode with coverage around 30 km × 50 km acquired between 2009 and 2020 around Herschel Island, Qikiqtaruk (HIQ), all the ice-free scenes were processed. The resulting dataset of 175 collocated scenes was used to map the significant wave height ($H_s$) and to link spatial and temporal patterns to local coastal processes. Sea state parameters are estimated in raster format with a 600 m step using the empirical algorithm CWAVE_EX. The statistics of the $H_s$ were aggregated according to spatial variability, seasonality and wind conditions. The results show that the spatial wave climate is clearly related to the dominant wind regime and seasonality. For instance, the aggregation of all the scenes recorded in July between 2009 and 2020 results in an average of 0.82 m $H_s$, while in October the average $H_s$ is almost 0.40 m higher. The analysis by wind direction shows that fetch length and wind speed are likely the most important variables influencing the spatial variability. A larger fetch under NW conditions results in a mean wave height of 0.92 m, while waves generated under ESE conditions are lower at 0.81 m on average. Full article

Publicly available Digital Elevation Models (DEM) derived from various space-based platforms (Satellite/Space Shuttle Endeavour) have had a tremendous impact on the quantification of landscape characteristics, and the related processes and products. The accuracy of elevation data from six major public domain satellite-derived Digital Elevation Models (a 30 m grid size—ASTER GDEM version 3 (Ast30), SRTM version 3 (Srt30), CartoDEM version V3R1 (Crt30)—and 90 m grid size—SRTM version 4.1 (Srt90), MERIT (MRT90), and TanDEM-X (TDX90)), as well as the improvement in accuracy achieved by applying a correction (linear fit) using Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) estimates at Ground Control Points (GCPs) is examined in detail. The study area is a hard rock terrain that overall is flat-like with undulating and uneven surfaces (IIT (ISM) Campus and its environs) where the statistical analysis (corrected and uncorrected DEMs), correlation statistics and statistical tests (for elevation and slope), the impact of resampling methods, and the optimum number of GCPs for reduction of error in order to use it in further applications have been presented in detail. As the application of DGPS data at GCPs helps in the substantial reduction of bias by the removal of systematic error, it is recommended that DEMs may be corrected using DGPS before being used in any scientific studies. Full article

The interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) data set, acquired by the TanDEM-X (TerraSAR-X add-on for Digital Elevation Measurement) mission (TDM), represents a unique data source to derive geo-information products at a global scale. The complete Earth’s landmasses have been surveyed at least twice during the mission bistatic operation, which started at the end of 2010. Examples of the delivered global products are the TanDEM-X digital elevation model (DEM) (at a final independent posting of 12 m × 12 m) or the TanDEM-X global Forest/Non-Forest (FNF) map. The need for a reliable water product from TanDEM-X data was dictated by the limited accuracy and difficulty of use of the TDX Water Indication Mask (WAM), delivered as by-product of the global DEM, which jeopardizes its use for scientific applications, as well. Similarly as it has been done for the generation of the FNF map; in this work, we utilize the global data set of TanDEM-X quicklook images at 50 m × 50 m resolution, acquired between 2011 and 2016, to derive a new global water body layer (WBL), covering a range from −60${}^{\circ }$ to +90${}^{\circ }$ latitudes. The bistatic interferometric coherence is used as the primary input feature for performing water detection. We classify water surfaces in single TanDEM-X images, by considering the system’s geometric configuration and exploiting a watershed-based segmentation algorithm. Subsequently, single overlapping acquisitions are mosaicked together in a two-step logically weighting process to derive the global TDM WBL product, which comprises a binary averaged water/non-water layer as well as a permanent/temporary water indication layer. The accuracy of the new TDM WBL has been assessed over Europe, through a comparison with the Copernicus water and wetness layer, provided by the European Space Agency (ESA), at a 20 m × 20 m resolution. The F-score ranges from 83%, when considering all geocells (of 1${}^{\circ }$ latitudes × 1${}^{\circ }$ longitudes) over Europe, up to 93%, when considering only the geocells with a water content higher than 1%. At global scale, the quality of the product has been evaluated, by intercomparison, with other existing global water maps, resulting in an overall agreement that often exceeds 85% (F-score) when the content in the geocell is higher than 1%. The global TDM WBL presented in this study will be made available to the scientific community for free download and usage. Full article

The availability of global digital elevation models (DEMs) from multiple time points allows their combination for analysing vegetation changes. The combination of models (e.g., SRTM and TanDEM-X) can contain errors, which can, due to their synergistic effects, yield incorrect results. We used a high-resolution LiDAR-derived digital surface model (DSM) to evaluate the accuracy of canopy height estimates of the aforementioned global DEMs. In addition, we subtracted SRTM and TanDEM-X data at 90 and 30 m resolutions, respectively, to detect deforestation caused by bark beetle disturbance and evaluated the associations of their difference with terrain characteristics. The study areas covered three Central European mountain ranges and their surrounding areas: Bohemian Forest, Erzgebirge, and Giant Mountains. We found that vertical bias of SRTM and TanDEM-X, relative to the canopy height, is similar with negative values of up to −2.5 m and LE90s below 7.8 m in non-forest areas. In forests, the vertical bias of SRTM and TanDEM-X ranged from −0.5 to 4.1 m and LE90s from 7.2 to 11.0 m, respectively. The height differences between SRTM and TanDEM-X show moderate dependence on the slope and its orientation. LE90s for TDX-SRTM differences tended to be smaller for east-facing than for west-facing slopes, and varied, with aspect, by up to 1.5 m in non-forest areas and 3 m in forests, respectively. Finally, subtracting SRTM and NASA DEMs from TanDEM-X and Copernicus DEMs, respectively, successfully identified large areas of deforestation caused by hurricane Kyril in 2007 and a subsequent bark beetle disturbance in the Bohemian Forest. However, local errors in TanDEM-X, associated mainly with forest-covered west-facing slopes, resulted in erroneous identification of deforestation. Therefore, caution is needed when combining SRTM and TanDEM-X data in multitemporal studies in a mountain environment. Still, we can conclude that SRTM and TanDEM-X data represent suitable near global sources for the identification of deforestation in the period between the time points of their acquisition. Full article

The global digital elevation model (DEM) is important for various scientific applications. With the recently released TanDEM-X 90-m DEM and AW3D30 version 2.2, the open global or near-global coverage DEM datasets have been further expanded. However, the quality of these DEMs has not yet been fully characterized, especially in the application for regional scale studies. In this study, we assess the quality of five freely available global DEM datasets (SRTM-1 DEM, SRTM-3 DEM, ASTER GDEM2, AW3D30 DEM and TanDEM-X 90-m DEM) and one 30-m resampled TanDEM-X DEM (hereafter called TDX30) over the south-central Chinese province of Hunan. Then, the newly-released high precision ICESat-2 (Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite-2) altimetry points are introduced to evaluate the accuracy of these DEMs. Results show that the SRTM1 DEM offers the best quality with a Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) of 8.0 m, and ASTER GDEM2 has the worst quality with the RMSE of 10.1 m. We also compared the vertical accuracies of these DEMs with respect to different terrain morphological characteristics (e.g., elevation, slope and aspect) and land cover types. It reveals that the DEM accuracy decreases when the terrain elevation and slope value increase, whereas no relationship was found between DEM error and terrain aspect. Furthermore, the results show that the accuracy increases as the land cover type changes from vegetated to non-vegetated. Overall, the SRTM1 DEM, with high spatial resolution and high vertical accuracy, is currently the most promising dataset among these DEMs and it could, therefore, be utilized for the studies and applications requiring accurate DEMs. Full article

In this study, we compared the accuracies of above-ground biomass (AGB) estimated by integrating ALOS (Advanced Land Observing Satellite) PALSAR (Phased-Array-Type L-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar) data and TanDEM-X-derived forest heights (TDX heights) at four scales from 1/4 to 25 ha in a hemi-boreal forest in Japan. The TDX heights developed in this study included nine canopy height models (CHMs) and three model-based forest heights (ModelHs); the nine CHMs were derived from the three digital surface models (DSMs) of (I) TDX 12 m DEM (digital elevation model) product, (II) TDX 90 m DEM product and (III) TDX 5 m DSM, which we developed from two TDX–TSX (TerraSAR-X) image pairs for reference, and the three digital terrain models (DTMs) of (i) an airborne Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR)-based DTM (LiDAR DTM), (ii) a topography-based DTM and (iii) the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) DEM; the three ModelHs were developed from the two TDX-TSX image pairs used in (III) and the three DTMs (i to iii) with the Sinc inversion model. In total, 12 AGB estimation models were developed for comparison. In this study, we included the C-band SRTM DEM as one of the DTMs. According to Walker et al. (2007), the SRTM DEM serves as a DTM for most of the Earth’s surface, except for the areas with extensive tree and/or shrub coverage, e.g., the boreal and Amazon regions. As our test site is located in a hemi-boreal zone with medium forest cover, we tested the ability of the SRTM DEM to serve as a DTM in our test site. This study especially aimed to analyze the capability of the two TDX DEM products (I and II) to estimate AGB in practice in the hemi-boreal region, and to examine how the different forest height creation methods (the simple DSM and DTM subtraction for the nine CHMs and the Sinc inversion model-based approach for the three ModelHs) and the different spatial resolutions of the three DSMs and three DTMs affected the AGB estimation results. We also conducted the slope-class analysis to see how the varying slopes influenced the AGB estimation accuracies. The results show that the combined use of the PALSAR data and the CHM derived from (I) TDX 12 m DEM and (i) LiDAR DTM achieved the highest AGB estimation accuracies across the scales (R² ranged from 0.82 to 0.97), but the CHMs derived from (I) TDX 12 m DEM and another two DTMs, (ii) and (iii), showed low R² values at any scales. In contrast, the two CHMs derived from (II) TDX 90 m DEM and both (i) LiDAR DTM and (iii) SRTM DEM showed high R² values > 0.87 and 0.78, respectively, at the scales > 9.0 ha, but they yielded much lower R² values at smaller scales. The three ModelHs gave the lowest R² values across the scales (R² ranged from 0.39 to 0.60). Analyzed by slope class at the 1.0 ha scale, however, all the 12 AGB estimation models yielded high R² values > 0.66 at the lowest slope class (0° to 9.9°), including the three ModelHs (R² ranged between 0.68 to 0.69). The two CHMs derived from (II) TDX 90 m DEM and both (i) LiDAR DTM and (iii) SRTM DEM showed R² values of 0.80 and 0.71, respectively, at the lowest slope class, while the CHM derived from (I) TDX 12 m DEM and (i) LiDAR DTM showed high R² values across the slope classes (R² > 0.82). The results show that (I) TDX 12 m DEM had a high capability to estimate AGB, with a high accuracy across the scales and the slope classes in the form of CHM, but the use of (i) LiDAR DTM was required. On the other hand, (II) TDX 90 m DEM was able to achieve high AGB estimation accuracies not only with (i) LiDAR DTM, but also with (iii) SRTM DEM in the form of CHM, but it was limited to large scales > 9.0 ha; however, all the models developed in this study have the possibility to achieve higher AGB estimation accuracies at the 1.0 ha scale in flat terrains with slope < 10°. The analysis showed the strengths and limitations of each model, and it also indicates that the data creation methods, the spatial resolutions of datasets and topographic features affects the effective spatial scales for AGB mapping, and the optimal combinations of these features should be chosen to obtain high AGB estimation accuracies. Full article

The availability of high-resolution spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data coupled with the ongoing refinement of tomographic SAR (TomoSAR) technology has made use of radar data feasible for preventive monitoring and assessment of built structures. In this study, we first applied extended differential TomoSAR (D-TomoSAR) to a set of 26 scenes of TerraSAR/TanDEM-X (TSX/TDX) (2013–2015) and 32 scenes of Cosmo-SkyMed (CSK) (2015–2017) images to estimate motions of skyscrapers, bridges and historical monuments in Nanjing City, China. The calculation and isolation of unknown parameters in the D-TomoSAR model, including linear velocity, thermal dynamics and structural heights, helped to estimate millimetric statistics of motion time series. Then, aforementioned two SAR datasets were tentatively tested using amplitude dispersion and phase stability indicators, highlighting the performance and sensitivity of X-band SAR in structural displacement monitoring. Experimental results demonstrated that motion indexes, e.g., heterogeneities of thermal amplitudes and spatiotemporal displacements, were useful to evaluate the conditions of built structures being monitored, in particular when their structural topology were visible owing to the enhanced density of persistent scatterer (PS) measurements. This study implies the value of high-resolution D-TomoSAR tools in the preventive monitoring and health diagnosis of built structures elsewhere over the world. Full article

Land subsidence is a global environmental geological hazard caused by natural or human activities. The high spatial resolution and continuous time coverage of interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) time series analysis techniques provide data and a basis for the development of methods for the investigation and evolution mechanism study of regional land subsidence. Beijing, the capital city of China, has suffered from land subsidence for decades since it was first recorded in the 1950s. It was reported that uneven ground subsidence and fractures have seriously affected the normal operation of the Beijing Capital International Airport (BCIA) in recent years before the overhaul of the middle runway in April 2017. In this study, InSAR time series analysis was successfully used to detect the uneven local subsidence and ground fissure activity that has been gradually increasing in BCIA since 2010. A multi-temporal InSAR (MT-InSAR) technique was performed on 63 TerraSAR-X/TanDem-X (TSX/TDX) images acquired between 2010 and 2017, then deformation rate maps and time series for the airport area were generated. Comparisons of deformation rate and displacement time series from InSAR and ground-leveling were carried out in order to evaluate the accuracy of the InSAR-derived measurements. After an integrated analysis of the distribution characteristics of land subsidence, previous research results, and geological data was carried out, we found and located an active ground fissure. Then main cause of the ground fissures was preliminarily discussed. Finally, it can be conducted that InSAR technology can be used to identify and monitor geological processes, such as land subsidence and ground fissure activities, and can provide a scientific approach to better explore and study the cause and formation mechanism of regional subsidence and ground fissures. Full article

The TanDEM-X (TDX) mission launched by the German Aerospace Center delivers unprecedented global coverage of a high-quality digital elevation model (DEM) with a pixel spacing of 12 m. To examine the relationships of terrain, vegetation, and building elevations with hydrologic, geologic, geomorphologic, or ecologic factors, quantification of TDX DEM errors at a local scale is necessary. We estimated the errors of TDX data for open ground, forested, and built areas in a coastal urban environment by comparing the TDX DEM with LiDAR data for the same areas, using a series of error measures including root mean square error (RMSE) and absolute deviation at the 90% quantile (LE90). RMSE and LE90 values were 0.49 m and 0.79 m, respectively, for open ground. These values, which are much lower than the 10 m LE90 specified for the TDX DEM, highlight the promise of TDX DEM data for mapping hydrologic and geomorphic features in coastal areas. The RMSE/LE90 values for mangrove forest, tropical hardwood hammock forest, pine forest, dense residential, sparse residential, and downtown areas were 1.15/1.75, 2.28/3.37, 3.16/5.00, 1.89/2.90, 2.62/4.29 and 35.70/51.67 m, respectively. Regression analysis indicated that variation in canopy height of densely forested mangrove and hardwood hammock was well represented by the TDX DEM. Thus, TDX DEM data can be used to estimate tree height in densely vegetated forest on nearly flat topography next to the shoreline. TDX DEM errors for pine forest and residential areas were larger because of multiple reflection and shadow effects. Furthermore, the TDX DEM failed to capture the many high-rise buildings in downtown, resulting in the lowest accuracy among the different land cover types. Therefore, caution should be exercised in using TDX DEM data to reconstruct building models in a highly developed metropolitan area with many tall buildings separated by narrow open spaces. Full article

Persistent Scatterer Interferometry (PS-InSAR) has become an indispensable tool for monitoring surface motion in urban environments. The interferometric configuration of PS-InSAR tends to mix topographic and deformation components in differential interferometric observations. When the upcoming constellation missions such as, e.g., TanDEM-L or TWIN-L provide new standard operating modes, bi-static stacks for deformation monitoring will be more commonly available in the near future. In this paper, we present an analysis of the applicability of such data sets for urban monitoring, using a stack of pursuit monostatic data obtained during the scientific testing phase of the TanDEM-X (TDX) mission. These stacks are characterized by extremely short temporal baselines between the TerraSAR-X (TSX) and TanDEM-X acquisitions at the same interval. We evaluate the advantages of this acquisition mode for urban deformation monitoring with several of the available acquisition pairs. Our proposed method exploits the special properties of this data using a modified processing chain based on the standard PS-InSAR deformation monitoring procedure. We test our approach with a TSX/TDX mono-static pursuit stack over Guangzhou, using both the proposed method and the standard deformation monitoring procedure, and compare the two results. The performance of topographic and deformation estimation is improved by using the proposed processing method, especially regarding high-rise buildings, given the quantitative statistic on temporal coherence, detectable numbers, as well as the PS point density of persistent scatters points, among which the persistent scatter numbers increased by 107.2% and the detectable height span increased by 78% over the standard processing results. Full article

In this paper, we assess the flood mapping capabilities of the X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery acquired by the bistatic pair TanDEM-X/TerraSAR-X (TDX/TSX). The main objective is to investigate the added value of the bistatic TDX/TSX Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) coherence in addition to the SAR backscatter in the context of inundation mapping. As a classifier, we consider a Random Forest (RF) classification scheme using TDX/TSX SAR intensities and their bistatic InSAR coherence to extract the flood extent map. To evaluate the classification results and as no “ground truth” was available at the SAR data acquisition time, we set up a LISFLOOD-FP hydraulic model for simulating the temporal evolution of the flood water. The flood map simulated by the model shows good performances with an Overall Accuracy (OA) of $97.92\%$ and a Critical Success Index (CSI) of $94.01\%$ . The SAR-derived flood map is then compared to the LISFLOOD-FP extent map simulated at the SAR data acquisition time. As a test case, we consider the flooding event of the Richelieu River that occurred in the Montérégie region of Quebec (Canada) from April to June 2011. Experimental results highlight the potential of the bistatic InSAR coherence for more accurate flood mapping in a complex landscape with urban and vegetation areas. The classification results of the SAR-derived flood map with respect to the LISFLOOD-FP flood map reach an OA of $78.65\%$ and a Precision of $82.08\%$ when integrating the bistatic InSAR coherence. These classification OA and Precision values are $69.63\%$ and $64.52\%$ , respectively, using only the TDX/TSX SAR intensity. Full article

This study presents the retrieval of rice paddy height using single polarization (single-pol) interferometric SAR (InSAR) data by means of model-based height inversion without an external DEM. A total of eight TanDEM-X (TDX) scenes were used and the TDX images were; acquired using a large cross-track baseline configuration during the TDX Science Phase (June–August 2015). A single-pol inversion approach for a flooded rice field is proposed and evaluated over the Buan test site in South Korea. A novel approach is adopted for the estimation of the ground (i.e., water level) interferometric phase within a flooded rice paddy from TDX data acquired during a period of early rice growth. It is consequently possible to apply the model-based inversion algorithm to the single-pol InSAR data. Rice height maps during the rice growth cycle presented and validated by field measurements. The results demonstrated the high performance of the inversion with a correlation coefficient of 0.78 and an RMSE of 0.10 m. The proposed methodology will be useful to monitor rice plants and to predict a gross rice yield, along with dual and fully polarimetric interferometric SAR data. Full article

Supported by a shallow groundwater wetland ecosystem, the Nanhu oasis, which is the location of the Yangguan frontier pass, represents an important supply and defence station for the ancient Silk Road. The reconstruction of the evolution of the water cultivation environment is helpful for archaeological surveys and the protection of this well-known heritage site. This study proposes a workflow for reconstructing the water cultivation paleoenvironment-based primarily on X- and L-band spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data. First, TerraSAR-X/TanDEM-X (TSX/TDX)-generated Digital Elevation Model (DEM) data were used for microrelief analyses, including a watershed analysis and drainage network extraction. Several dried-up paleochannels and the range of the Daze (a wetland dating back to the Tang Dynasty (618–907 A.D.)) were identified. Second, based on the hydrological sensitivity analysis of the multi-temporal L-band SAR data, arid land vegetation accompanying the emergence of groundwater was extracted to locate ancient arable areas using backscattering and coherence characteristics. Finally, reconstruction of the water cultivation paleoenvironment surrounding the Nanhu oasis dating back to the Han and Tang dynasties (202 B.C.–907 A.D.) was performed, referring to historical documents. New discoveries were validated by field campaigns, and the results of the SAR archaeological investigations conducted in this study indicated that the ancient arable area in the Nanhu oasis was nearly double the current dimensions. Full article

The satellite of the TerraSAR-X mission, called TSX, was launched on 15 June 2007 and its identically constructed twin satellite TDX, which is required by the mission TanDEM-X, launched on 21 June 2010. Together they supply high-quality radar data in order to serve two mission goals: Scientific observation of Earth and the provisioning of remote sensing data for the commercial market (TerraSAR-X mission) and the generation of a global digital elevation model (DEM) of Earth’s surface (TanDEM-X mission). On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the mission, the focus will be on the development of the TerraSAR-X system during this period, including the extension of the ground segment, the evolution of the product portfolio, dedicated mission campaigns, radar experiments, refinement of the satellite operations and orbit control, and the results of the performance monitoring. Despite numerous interventions in the overall system, we managed to incorporate new scientific and commercial requirements and to improve and enhance the overall system in order to fulfill the increasing demand for Earth observation data without noticeable interruptions to ongoing operations. Full article