Geomorphological Mapping with Respect to Amplitude, Coherenceand Phase Information of Ers Sar Tandem Pair

Radar interferometry is a technique which makes use of interfered signal of two radar echoes for topographic elevation and terrain element mapping. ERS Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) tandem pair with minimum possible temporal baseline of 1-day and with precise orbit control to obtain suitable interferometric spatial baseline is appropriate for interferometric study in terrain analysis. In this work, attempts have been made to characterize of the terrain gemophological elements with respect to interferometric coherence and phase information of ERS SAR tandem data and backscattered amplitude information of ERS SAR and Envisat ASAR data. Amplitude of SAR data represents the strength of backscattered signal in terms of surface geometry, surface roughness and dielectric property of the terrain. Interferometric coherence information represents temporal stability of terrain elements. Phase information of ERS tandem pair gives high resolution Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of the study area from which slope and slope-change maps may be generated. In this mapping, amplitude, coherence and phase information of ERS SAR tandem pair have been found to provide useful information for identifying and delineating different geomorphological units. In addition to mean backscattered amplitude and coherence information of ERS SAR tandem pair, slope and slope change values derived from the DEM which may be generated from the interferometric phase of the tandem pair, help to characterize the geomorphological units in terms of their shape and geometry.