SARscape

Interferometry Module for Displacement Map Generation

In order to fully exploit processes of the Interferometry Module for Displacement Map
Generation, the European Space Agency (ESA) has distributed these sample data sets;
any other use of this material is prohibited.

Data Set Description – the data set is separated into two parts:

1. Input (Bam_DInSAR_Input.zip) is used to run the exercise, it includes the following

binary data and corresponding header file:

a. 3dec03_slc Master SLC data
b. 11feb04_slc Slave SLC data
c. srtm25_dem Reference Digital Elevation Model

2. Output data (Bam_DInSAR_Output.zip) includes intermediate products and a possible

set of Ground Control Points that could be used in the Phase to Displacement Conversion
step, the use of these data are not mandatory to the exercise.

Input and Output data can be downloaded from the sarmap server by using the following
ftp account information.

Host Name: ftp.sarmap.ch
User Name: sarscape_datasets
Password: zxcvbnm

More information regarding the data is available in the Data Format document, reading
this document prior to starting the exercise is suggested. Please refer to the Online
Help document for more specific processing instruction.

The data consists of:

– An ENVISAT ASAR Single Look Complex data pair acquired in the IS2 mode, with
the SAR incidence angle of approximately 23°, and VV polarization over Bam, Iran.
The satellite acquisition dates are December 3, 2003 (before the earthquake) and
February 11, 2004 (47 days after the earthquake). The images provided for this
exercise have already been imported (using the verified DORIS satellite orbits) and
resized. The area coverage is approximately 56x40km.

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– An SRTM-3 extract, over sampled to a 25 meter grid, is used as reference to the

low resolution Digital Elevation Model, and was generated using the Digital Elevation
Model Extraction tool.

The goals of this exercise are:

• To estimate the orbital related parameters.

• To generate the interferogram.
• To flatten the interferogram and separate the differential phase through the
reference Digital Elevation Model.
• To filter the flattened interferogram and to generate the coherence image.
• To unwrap the differential phase.
• To generate the DInSAR Displacement Map.

Processing Steps

Baseline Estimation
Enables the user to obtain infomraiton about the baseline values and other orbital
parameters of the input SAR pair. This function is not mandatory to the exercise.

Interferogram Generation
Starting with the two Single Look Complex input data, co-registered, and multi-looking
interferogram, the master Intensity and slave Intensity images are generated. In order
to get a quasi-square pixel around 25m (on the ground), using multi-looking factors of
1 in range and 5 in azimuth are suggested. The products are automatically named by
adding the relevant suffix to the output file names.

If the Digital Elevation Model is used in input (optional), the flattened interferogram
(_dint), the slant range DEM (_srdem) and the synthetic interferogram (_sint) will be
generated among the output products. In this case, the Interferogram Flattening step
has not been carried out and the Adaptive Filter and Coherence Generation step will
follow in the processing sequence.

Digital Elevation Model/Ellipsoid Interferogram Flattening

During this processing the previously generated interferogram is split into the synthetic
phase and the residual phase (or differential phase). Then the input Digital Elevation
Model is re-projected onto the master SAR geometry and is re-generated as a slant
range output product. The output products are automatically named by adding the
relevant suffix to the root name.

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Adaptive Filter and Coherence Generation

The flattened interferogram (differential phase) is filtered, using the box car method,
and the scene coherence is generated. The coherence data values can vary between
0 and 1, in proportion to the temporal correlation between master and slave SAR
acquisitions. The output products are automatically named by adding the relevant suffix
to the root name.

Phase Unwrapping
The differential phase is unwrapped using a region growing algorithm. A coherence
threshold is used to avoid, or minimize, unwrapping errors. Low threshold values
(between 0.15 and 0.2) are suggested to limit interruptions (e.g. phase jumping) during
the growing process. The unwrapped phase is automatically named by adding the suffix
“_upha” to the input file name.

Phase to Displacement
The phase values are converted to displacement and geocoded onto a map projection
and a Ground Control Points file must be previously generated. The figure below
provides an example of locations for three Ground Control Points (red crosses).
Specific displacement figures are not available because the points are assumed to be
stable (there is no displacement). Output products are named by adding the relevant
suffix to the root name.

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Notes:
- Look Up Table related problems can be experienced when displaying the data in the
ENVI view. The problem is solved by properly stretching the image histogram using
the relevant function from the “Enhance” pull down menu of the ENVI image window.
- Tiff files are intended only for visualization, the original histogram is stretched to
8 bit by means of a pre-defined scaling formula (see “Tools>GenerateTiff”).
- The interferograms are shown in grey scale; in order to visualize the interferometric
fringes in RGB the corresponding tiff file must be created.
- The .sml and .hdr are the product header files, the .sml contains all the processing
related information and the .hdr contains the information for product compatibility
with ENVI.
- It does not matter which of the input data are selected as master and which is
slave, it is mandatory that the initial order is maintained throughout the entire
processing chain.

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