A New Method Derived from Time-vector Analysis for Generation of Elevation Information Based on Formation Flying Interferometric Sar Satellites

Formation flying satellites SAR interferometry is one of the most effective space techniques for generation of the accurate digital mapping of the World’s topography in Earth remote sensing. The conventional mathematical model for elevation generation mainly focuses on the modes of the parameters, and the baseline is projected on the height-range plane of the main SAR antenna. The mathematical model itself is not accurate as well because of simplification. The spaceborne InSAR system has its own characteristics, such as regular orbits, variable baseline vector changes with the locations of the satellites, influencing factors to SAR images from the Earth curvature and rotation, etc. To solve these problems, a new method based on time-vector analysis is primarily presented in this paper. The orbit and attitude characteristics of formation flying satellites are introduced and effects of space state parameters to elevation accuracy are discussed.