Estimation of Instantaneous Sea Level Using SAR Interferometry

Strong and coherent radar backscattering signals are observed over oyster sea farms that consist of artificial structures installed on the bottom. We successfully obtained 21 coherent interferograms from 11 JERS-1 SAR data sets even though orbital baselines (up to 2 km) or temporal baselines (up to 1 year) were relatively large. The coherent phases preserved in the sea farms are probably formed by double bouncing from sea surface and the sea farming structures, and consequently they are correlated with tide height (or instantaneous sea level). Phase unwrapping is required to restore the absolute sea level. We show that radar backscattering intensity is roughly correlated with the sea surface height, and utilize the fact to determine the wrapping counts. While the SAR image intensity gives a rough range of absolute sea level, the interferometric phases provide the detailed relative height variations within a limit of $2{\pi}$ (or 15.3 cm) with respect to the sea level at the moment of the master data acquisition. A combined estimation results in an instantaneous sea level. The radar measurements were verified using tide gauge records, and the results yielded a correlation coefficient of 0.96 with an r.m.s. error of 6.0 cm. The results demonstrate that radar interferometry is a promising approach to sea level measurement in the near coastal regions.