3D Monitoring of Buildings Using TerraSAR-X InSAR, DInSAR and PolSAR Capacities

Abstract

The rapid expansion of cities increases the need of urban remote sensing for a large scale monitoring. This paper provides greater understanding of how TerraSAR-X (TSX) high-resolution abilities enable to reach the spatial precision required to monitor individual buildings, through the use of a 4 year temporal stack of 100 images over Paris (France). Three different SAR modes are investigated for this purpose. First a method involving a whole time-series is proposed to measure realistic heights of buildings. Then, we show that the small wavelength of TSX makes the interferometric products very sensitive to the ordinary building-deformation, and that daily deformation can be measured over the entire building with a centimetric accuracy, and without any a priori on the deformation evolution, even when neglecting the impact of the atmosphere. Deformations up to 4 cm were estimated for the Eiffel Tower and up to 1 cm for other lower buildings. These deformations were analyzed and validated with weather and in situ local data. Finally, four TSX polarimetric images were used to investigate geometric and dielectric properties of buildings under the deterministic framework. Despite of the resolution loss of this mode, the possibility to estimate the structural elements of a building orientations and their relative complexity in the spatial organization are demonstrated.

Keywords

• SAR
• InSAR
• DInSAR
• PolSAR
• urban areas
• deformation monitoring
• scatterers’ orientation