Urban sensing with spaceborne interferometric synthetic aperture radar

Abstract

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and interferometric SAR (InSAR) are state-of-the-art radar remote sensing technologies and are very useful for urban remote sensing. The technologies have some very special characteristics compared to optical remote sensing and are especially advantageous in cloudy regions due to the ability of the microwave radar signals used by the current SAR sensors to penetrate clouds. This chapter introduces the basic concepts of SAR, differential InSAR, and multi-temporal InSAR, and their typical applications in urban remote sensing. Examples of applying the various InSAR techniques in generating DEMs and monitoring ground and infrastructure deformation are given. The capabilities and limitations of InSAR techniques in urban remote sensing are briefly discussed.