SPECIAL CONSIDERATION ON THE RADARSAT REPEAT-PASS SAR INTERFEROMETRY

SAR interferometry (InSAR) using the space-borne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) have recently become one of the most effective tools monitoring surface changes caused by landslides, earthquakes, subsidences or volcanic eruption. This study focuses on examining the feasibility of InSAR using the RADARSAT data. Although the RABARSAT SAR with its high resolution and variable incidence angle has several advantages for repeat-pass InSAR, it has two key limitations: first, the orbit is not precisely known; and second, RADARSAT's 24-day repeat pass interval is not very favourable for retaining useful coherence. In this study, two pairs of RADARSAT data in the Nahanni area, NWT, Canada have been tested. We will discuss about the special consideration required on the interferometric processing steps specifically for RADARSAT data including image co-registration, spectral filtering in both azimuth and range, estimation of the interferometric baseline, and correction of the interferogram with respect to the "flat earth" phase contribution. Preliminary results can be summarized as: i) the properly designed azimuth filter based upon the antenna characteristic improves coherence considerably if difference in Doppler centroid of the two images is relatively large; ii) the co-registration process combined by fringe spectrum and amplitude cross-correlation techniques results in optimal matching; iii) the baseline is not always possible to be estimated from the definitive orbit information.