Aps Removal and Void Filling for Dem Reconstruction from High- Resolution Insar Data

The quality and accuracy of DEMs derived from repeatpass InSAR is limited by atmospheric phase screen (APS) difference and decorrelation between SAR images. In this paper, we show a compromising but effective approach to avoid DEM gaps and remove height errors induced by the atmosphere. Existing low resolution DEMs are used as external data to improve the quality of interferometric DEM. Our approach focuses on two aspects: 1) Estimate the APS from a differential interferogram with a low-pass filter in the frequency domain, and remove the height errors caused by APS. 2) Fill data voids and calibrate the height with an external DEM. The proposed method has been applied on high-resolution COSMO-SkyMed Tandem data with one-day temporal baseline over Mt. Qilian in north-western China. The resultant DEM has been validated in comparison with an officially-issued 1:50,000 DEM. Our preliminary result shows that atmospheric artifacts and data voids have been removed effectively.