An InSAR Image Simulation and Elevation Inversion Method for Buildings

Abstract

The layover and shadow phenomenon is serious in urban areas, where the interferometric phase is complex and disordered and interpretation of an image is difficult. Therefore, it is always a hot and difficult problem for InSAR processing. SAR image simulation can provide data support for the study of image processing and understanding methods. However, most existing SAR image simulation methods for construction areas cannot obtain coherent interferometric SAR image pairs. This article proposes an InSAR simulation method for buildings. It can simulate complex images, interferograms, and the number of layover components of the construction areas. In addition, based on the analysis of the phase variation characteristics of the simulation, a reference determination method for the unwrapped phase in the layover area is proposed. It solves the problem of discontinuity of the interferometric phase in the construction areas, with which the traditional method of unwrapping cannot deal effectively. We compared the simulated results using the actual SAR images and interferometric phase and verified the correctness of our simulation method. Moreover, we carry out phase unwrapping and elevation inversion experiments using the simulated and real images and verified the effectiveness of our phase unwrapping method in applying the InSAR elevation inversion.

Keywords

• interferometric synthetic aperture radar (insar)
• simulation
• elevation inversion
• phaseunwrapping
• layover