A new approach for Atmospheric Phase Screen Compensation in Ground-Based SAR over areas with steep topography

Abstract:
This paper proposes a new technique for Atmospheric Phase Screen (APS) compensation based on a 2D Multiple Regression Model (height-dependent) in Ground-Based Synthetic Aperture Radar (GB-SAR) to zero-baseline acquisitions over mountainous areas with steep topography. This technique has been applied in the mountainous environment of Canillo (Andorra) where there is an active landslide that nowadays is being reactivated coinciding with strong rains. Data have been acquired at X-band using the GB-SAR sensor developed at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (RISKSAR) in a one-year measuring campaign (October 2010 – October 2011). The need to compensate the phase-difference errors when retrieving interferometric information is discussed.