Ku-Band Airborne Interferometric SAR Processing Based on Parallel Processing System of IECAS: First Results

Abstract:
This paper describes experimental InSAR system of IECAS (Institute of Electronics Chinese Academy of Sciences). The system operates in Ku-band and is configured as two-antenna Single-Pass cross-track mode for topographic mapping. On the basis of SAR/INSAR Parallel processing system of IECAS, fast and effective In- SAR processing from SAR raw data is adopted to acquire accurate interferogram and digital elevation model (DEM). This ground-based processing system can provide ``on demand'' processing of INSAR data. In the proposed INSAR system signal processing is composed of standard InSAR algorithm processing: Chirp Scaling imaging arithmetic in a phase preserving manner, co-registration, interferogram filtering, phase unwrapping, etc. In order to generate data satisfying the accuracy requirements, it is essential to measure and compensate for nonlinear motion of the two antennas which constitute the interferometric baseline. Correction of motion errors especially the roll error are compensated in the InSAR processing . Finally the experimental results acquired at a test site are presented. In addition, this article gives an overview of the capabilities and limits of this interferometric system ,at the same time a study on future system is proposed.