Surface and Ground Topography Determination in Tropical Rainforest Areas Using Airborne Interferometric SAR

For the generation of topographic maps generally the ground elevation rather than the surface elevation is required, which can be realized, if at all, only with large wavelengths that penetrate the vegetation foliage. This paper reports about a project in the Brazilian Amazon region where Aerosensing's P-band airborne interferometric SAR has been used to map a part of the rainforest. The P-band sensor has been operated in fully polarimetric and interferometric (repeat-pass) mode with a range resolution of 2 m. A digital ground elevation model has been generated with a horizontal spacing of 2.5 m and a rms height accuracy of 2 m. Additionally, a high precision model of the surface elevation, with a rms height accuracy of 0.5 m, has been derived using the single-pass X-band data. A description of the system, obtained results, and validation of the results is given.