Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Technology: New Perspectives Offered by New-Generation and Forthcoming SAR Sensors

Dear Colleagues,

A new generation of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) instruments mounted on-board to space and aerial vectors has been emerging over recent years, thus guaranteeing improved temporal sampling and spatial resolutions of remote-based investigations. In this framework, of particular relevance is the development of new approaches for the effective processing of long-term sequences of SAR images. Use of novel High Computing paradigms and the development of new methods for the integration of information derived from different sets of SAR images acquired at complementary frequency bands represent the new challenging frontiers of SAR technologies. SAR-driven cutting-edge technologies also concern: combination/fusion of SAR and optical data; development of new multi-temporal/multi-mode InSAR methods based on the use of mono/multi-static SAR configurations; advances of Polarimetric InSAR and Tomography SAR techniques with new-generation of high-resolution SAR images; computer science applications for high-speed computing.     

The Special Issue is open to all researchers. Papers are solicited on the following general themes:

- Exploitation of the existing and planned SAR missions

- Advances of Interferometric SAR techniques: development of new algorithms and methodologies for the estimation of the height topography, the deformation, the atmospheric phase screen as well as other contributions regarding the InSAR signal.

- Potential of new-generation SAR instruments onboard the principal spaceborne platforms: the Sentinel constellation of the European Union, the COSMO-SkyMed constellation of the Italian Space Agency, the ALOS-2 mission of the Japanese Space Agency, the TerraSAR-X constellation operated by DLR, other SAR instruments.

- Future perspectives in the use of SAR data for the development of new emerging cutting-edge
technologies for Earth's remote sensing.

- Synergic use of SAR and optical data (e.g., Sentinel-2, LANDSAT, etc) for agricultural applications and/or for the study of land-use, land-cover of imaged scenes.

- High Performance Computing (HPC) for SAR data processing.

- Geophysical Investigations of the deformation sources that are responsible for the detected movements of the Earth's crust retrieved by InSAR measurements, due to heterogeneous causes, such as earthquakes, volcanic eruption, ground-water extraction in urban areas, landslide movements, etc.

- Integration of information provided through space-, aerial- and terrestrial-based InSAR data systems.

Dr. Antonio Pepe
Guest Editor

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