Copyright © 2016 American Scientific Publishers Advanced Science Letters

All rights reserved Vol. 4, 401–405, 2016

Printed in the United States of America

A Denoising Algorithm for InSAR Surface

Deformation Application
Lee Sui Ping1, Chan Yee Kit1, Lim Tien Sze1
1
Faculty of Engineering and Technology, Multimedia University, Jalan Ayer Keroh Lama 75450 Melaka, Malaysia

This letter describes an order-statistical based interferometry synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) phase estimation algorithm for
surface deformation. Critical interferometry issues during deformation measurement (which covers inevitable noises,
undersampling due to high topography variation and wrapped phase condition) are presented. This algorithm is mainly
emphasizes on InSAR geometry modelling, deformation value extraction, and the most typical part of phase estimation
process. A phase estimation method based on improved order-statistical filter is employed to overcome aforementioned
interferometry issues. External digital elevation map is employed into differential-InSAR approach to extract the deformation
information from interferogram by eliminating phase variation due to topography. Final processing outcome of the order-
statistical based InSAR algorithm is a surface deformation image due to two observations. For comparative studies, the order-
statistical based method and two other InSAR phase estimation algorithms are implemented via computer simulation (where
evaluation metric of root mean square error RMS is introduced for performance assessment). The order-statistical based
InSAR phase estimation method is also validated by true data set of satellite measurement.

Keywords: Interferometric phase estimation, phase noise filter, surface deformation, interferometry SAR.

1. INTRODUCTION processing wrapped InSAR measured phase values into

Recently, interferometry synthetic aperture radar
(InSAR) emerges as a powerful tool for surface
deformation mapping. Real practices of InSAR
deformation mapping has been widely implemented in
various fields, such as earthquake assessment1, ice glacier
monitoring2 and buildings crack evaluation3. Such remote
sensing approach capable to detect large spatial of surface
change over time within all-weather condition. The radar
sensor employs high frequency microwave that penetrates
through clouds or hazes, and illuminates on the target
observation area throughout day and night. This enables
consistent measurement of high resolution SAR
acquisitions (series of SAR observation images) over long
term period and generation of deformation map based on
the phase difference among these acquisitions.
The working principle of InSAR techniques involves
the computation task on phase difference within (at least a
pair of SAR images) pair of SAR observations where the
deformation map can be generated by relating the
extracted phase difference image into elevation image
base on InSAR geometry model. True value of phase
extraction has become the central problem of InSAR field
for decades. Despite many of solution models related to
InSAR are proposed and accomplished 4,5,6, a promising
to extract the true value of InSAR phase difference is not
yet be accomplished. The nature of interferometry
1
modulus 2π term that is not sufficient to represent the true
phase value of deformation. Though the process presents
challenges, such pure mathematical inverse problem still
could be recovered by two-dimensional Itoh-based phase
unwrapping method7 based on several pre-assumptions.
Unfortunately, InSAR phase extraction task is not only a
pure mathematical-ill problem, the attained phase
information always inferred by noises. In addition, non-
linear deformation or the vertical slope of target structure
( i.e. buildings and cliffs) may lead to enormous of phase
estimation error since the pre-assumption could not able
be fulfill in such critical area. By considering that the
measurement is done in noise free condition, the phase
difference value of each InSAR pixel is integrated along
integration path during phase-unwrapping. The
unwrapped outcome could be accurate in the condition
that no under sampling or aliasing issue. The existence of
vertical slope structure or non-linear deformation that
exceeds the resolution limit (InSAR geometry limit)
create under-sampling condition or so called “phase
discontinuity” issues for phase unwrapping. Such inverse
problem and its modeling works are described in previous
work8.
To deal with these issues, researchers from
worldwide have proposed various interesting solution
models. Goldstein established a charged-based residue
map that defines the residue point (phase discontinuity
part) into positive charge and negative charge. A line is
formed among positive charge and negative charge that
isolate the residue area from being cross through by
integration path of phase estimation. Such approach also
called as Goldstein branch-cut9. It is useful to isolate the
residues point and avoid the corrupted pixels to infer on
the good pixels. However, it may lead to big portion of
isolated “null” area with unknown phase value. Curtis
developed a network structure method for phase
estimation (Snaphu). Such phase unwrapping approach
generate a network structure to separate the phase images
into several smaller parts so that phase unwrapping tasks
could be performed in faster time with less memory
consumption. Such techniques also involve of mosaic task
so that the complete unwrapped outcome can be formed
from the separated pieces7. Lee has proposed an adaptive
filter for InSAR phase estimation. Such techniques
capable to perform adjustment of filtering rate on a pivot
mean filter respect to different kind of InSAR observed
terrain structure10. Inspired by the idea of Lee’s filter, a
coherence–based varying filter is developed. Different
than Lee’s method (and other InSAR phase estimation
methods), this algorithm employed minimum order-
statistical filter as the varying filter. The improved
minimum order-statistical filter able to adjust its filtering
rate based on the coherency level of phase images.
Previously, first version prototype of the improved order-
statistical filter is tested for topography measurement11.
The testing outcome shows that phase noise filter well
function on noise suppression without over-filter on
useful information.
In this letter, the order-statistical based InSAR phase
estimation algorithm is applied for InSAR surface
deformation mapping. Since there are different
circumstances to be considered on deformation
phenomena than topography measurement, the processing
steps of both InSAR algorithms would be slightly
different. The InSAR algorithm for surface deformation
studies covers InSAR geometry model, interferogram
forming, differentiate InSAR method based on DEM, true
phase estimation by improved order-statistical filter and
deformation map extraction. Such algorithm is
implemented by computer simulation and validated by
real data experiment.
2. PROBLEM STATEMENTS AND
FORMULATIONS
There are various reasons induced InSAR
observation and lead to inferior phase estimation. Overall,
wrapped phase (mathematical-ill) position, spatial under
sampling (exceed InSAR geometrical constraint) and
noise are mainly contribute to such condition. In this
section, these issues are categorized to three parts and
described as follows.
WRAPPED PHASE POSITION. Wrapped phase
value of mathematical ill pose is known as central
problem of all interferometry system. The nature of
interferometry requires phase information from input
signal (or complex-value data) and its working principles
are wrapping interferometry processed value into
modulus 2π condition. The following formulations
represent InSAR processing process.
, (1)
At least two apertures of SAR images on same target
of measurement area are required for InSAR operation. S1
represents signal from first aperture of SAR measurement
and S2 represents signal from second aperture.| S1| and |
S2| stand for the magnitude value of the signal first
aperture and second aperture while phase values of S1 and
S2 denoted by and . During InSAR operation, first
aperture SAR image is multiplied with conjugate of
second aperture SAR image, yielding a complex-valued
InSAR images, I.
(2)
From equation above, the phase term of I (which is
the phase difference among two apertures, ) is
called as interferogram. The interferogram is the InSAR
observed outcome which has wrapped within due
to the working operation as shown as above equation.
Such mathematical-ill condition of InSAR observation of
phase value, could be described as follow.
(3)
However, the principal value, that
indicates actual range distance from target sampling point
to radar could be much more radians than . The
following shows the relationship among and
where k is the number of wavelength.
(4)
INSAR GEOMETRY LIMIT. Yet InSAR measurement on
extreme terrain structure still presents challengence. The
spatial extent of InSAR measurement is constrained by its
geometrical limit. When InSAR projected its observation
on target area of extreme terrain structures like cliff,
fringe or artifact high building, spatial under sampling
happens due to large phase variation among two sample
pixels, lead to a circumstance of phase discontinuity on
relevant area. Previous section has stated that absolute
phase estimation could only be possible when the pre-
assumption of no- aliasing issue is well-hold which means
that phase estimation could work well when the variation
among 2 data samples is not exceeding 2π. Thus, such
constraint could be modeled by relating this with InSAR
geometry structures. There are two types of InSAR with
different geometry structure: one-pass operation( across-
track InSAR) usually used for elevation mapping, and
two-pass operation( along-track InSAR) usually applied
for land deformation measurement.
 For one-pass operation, the geometrical limit as
follow. B indicates baseline distance, H stand for the
height of radar sensors from ground reference plane. θ is
grazing angle, 𝛌 denotes radar wavelength.
indicates limitation of elevation variation among
measurement. Given example that a X-band (in frequency
of 10GHz ) satellite system with 5km height, grazing
angle of 30 degree and baseline distance of 1 m17. By
apply following model, we attained = 33.8m
which mean terrain variation exceed 33.8 m among two
data samples might lead to degradation of InSAR
observation.
(5)
The geometrical limit of two-pass operation is
modeled as below that if we calculate the InSAR
geometry constraint of C-band along track InSAR with
height of 240km and grazing angle of 45 degree17. Thus,
its geometrical limit is 1113m.
(6)
OTHER ERROR FACTORS OF NOISE. Other error
sources such as scattering of radiated energy off due to
hardware18, phase delay due to atmospheric disturbances19
and random phase influenced by any change in scattering
behavior may also degrade InSAR accuracy and lead to a
noisy InSAR observation.
3 WORKING PROCEDURES OF ORDER-
STATISTICAL BASED INSAR ALGORITHM
In this letter, the order-statistical based InSAR
algorithm implemented for surface deformation mapping.
Figure 1 shows the working procedure of relevant
approach. Such algorithm is mainly divides into four
processing procedures includes: interferogram forming,
phase value extracting of surface deformation, absolute
phase estimation and denoising, and surface deformation
mapping.
PROCEDURE1:INTERFEROGRAM FORMING. In
this algorithm, we consider two acquisition of InSAR
observation within different period as input data. Such
input data constitutes of 2 single look complex (SLC)
images. Consider that SLC image 1 is S1 and SLC image
2 is S2. The process of interferogram formation is
described in previous section as equation (2). Such
process generates first interferogram, I1 of the InSAR
algorithm called as interferogram 1.
3
Fig.1 < Block Diagram of Proposed Algorithm>
PROCEDURE2: EXTRACTION OF
DEFORMATION PHASE VALUE. The first InSAR
processing outcome of interferogram 1 is a wrapped
phase image, . As the remarkable tool for topography
measurement, there are various sources of phase variation
contribute to such wrapped phase image include the
sources of topography height, , surface deformation,
and noise, . Such scenario could be represented
as equation (7).
(7)
In order to extract the phase value of deformation
from the interferogram 1 (that ambiguous by topography
information), the external digital elevation map (DEM) of
target area is employed, and converted into phase values
(by multiplying the elevation with 4π/λ and wrapped it
into modulus 2π form ). Such converted DEM phase
value is consider as reference of topography phase
, so that noisy deformation phase image ( also refer
to interferogram 2, ) can be extracted by deducting the
topography reference phase , from interferogram
1, .
PROCEDURE3: ABSOLUTE PHASE
ESTIMATION AND DENOISING. Pervious procedure
has produced a noisy deformation interferogram of
interferogram 2 as equation (8). This procedure intends to
extract the principal phase value of surface deformation
unambiguously. This procedure involves the
implementation of the phase estimation approach
(improved order statistical filter) shown as figure 2.
(8)
Such method performs its noise filtering job based
on the coherence map generated as equation (9).
(9)
 relating the phase value to its geometry model. The
mapping process is described as equation (13).

(13)

4 EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS AND ITS ANALYSIS

In this section, we set up a simulation for surface

Fig.2 < Improved Order-Statistical Filter >
Filtering parameters is estimated by refer to the
coherence. The following equation shows how the
parameter estimator adjust the filtering rate ,ᾶ.
(10)
deformation on terrain hill. Figure 3 presents the InSAR
simulated data in noise free condition. Figure 3 (a) refers
to a simulated scene of terrain hill which is considered as
first InSAR observation. Figure 3 (b) shows the scene of
terrain hill after deformation. The true value of
deformation portion among two observations is displayed
as figure 3 (c).

1x1 window size is incorporated to the minimum

order statistical filter when ᾶ ≤0.4 while 3x3 window size
is selected for ᾶ>0.4. Equation (11) shows the function
of minimum order statistical filter with local window Wxy..
The local window is either constituted by the reference
pixel {ϕ(i,j)} itself or the first order level neighbor
pixel,{ϕ(i+1,j), ϕ(i-1,j), ϕ(i,j+1), ϕ(i,j-1) }. The following
Fig.3. < Simulation of InSAR observations for Surface
filter sorts and chooses the smallest value among local
window pixel. Deformation (a)First Observation (b) Second
(11) Observation (c) Deformation Portion >

The filtering outcome is then feed into Itoh base

phase unwrapping for true phase estimation. The
following equation describes the phase-unwrapping
model. The number of column and row is represented by
m and n.
Fig.4. < Processing Outcomes based on Simulation Data
(a) Coherence map (b)Interferogram (c) Estimation of
Surface Deformation >
where

and

(12)
Fig.5. <Algorithms’ Performance versus Noise Level>
After the phase unwrapping process, a 4x4 averaging
filter is incorporated into the InSAR algorithm for image
smoothing. The estimated outcome is an unwrapped
phase image of surface deformation. This procedure
enables denoising of principal phase estimation without
over- filter on the useful phase information.
Fig.6. < ERS-2 Observation of Earthquake Area (a)
PROCEDURE4: SURFACE DEFORMATION
MAPPING. During surface deformation mapping, the Observation before Earthquake (b) Observation after
phase image is converted into elevation image, by
Earthquake (c) External DEM >

Fig.7. < Processing Outcomes based on ERS Satellite
(a)Interferogram (b) Estimation of Surface Deformation>
Complex-valued Gaussian white noise7 is used to
simulate noisy environment. Figure 4 shows the
processing outcome images of order-statistical based
algorithm in 0.1 noise variance includes (a) coherency
map, (b) interferogram (c) estimated surface deformation.
Three InSAR phase estimation algorithms are
implemented for comparative studies include order-
statistical based InSAR phase estimation algorithm,
InSAR phase estimation associated with Gaussian filter
and InSAR phase estimation associated with Median filter.
The root mean square errors (RMSE) is employed as the
assessment metrics as equation (13) where refers to
estimated surface deformation and refers to true
deformation portion.
(13)
The performance of these algorithms based on
different noise level could be investigated. The
experimental results are plotted as figure 5. From figure
5, we observed that RMSE values of Gaussian method
remain lowest in noise variance of 0.1 to 0.3 and the
order-statistical method gives lowest RMSE after 0.4
noise variance onwards. Gaussian algorithm ranked best
noise suppression before 0.3 noise variance and takeover
by order-statistical method after 0.4 onward. Overall,
order-statistical method rank first, Gaussian method
ranked second and median method performs worst.
A real input data experiment based on ERS-2
Satellite observations on the hector mine earthquake area,
California (with location coordinate of 34° 36' N, 116° 16'
W) is conducted. This data set employed C-band
wavelength of 56.7 mm and its incidence angle is 23
degreeas shown in figure 6. The processing outcomes of
order-statistical based InSAR phase algorithm cover
interferogram and estimated deformation are shown as
figure 7. The estimation surface is plotted as three
dimensional image in elevation scale of centimeter (in
figure 7 (b)). The scratching lines show corrupted residue
line at low coherence region (noise variance > 0.7). The
mean value of surface deformation is -5.84 cm. This
means that the land portion has sinking down on 5.84cm
in overall.
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5. CONCLUSIONS
A denoising algorithm is introduced for InSAR
surface deformation application. The InSAR central
problems are investigated. The working procedures of the
algorithm are presented in details. Such method is also
tested by two InSAR data sets and compared to two other
algorithms. The experimental results based on RMSE
shows that such order-statistical based algorithm is
outperform two other methods.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work is the result of collaborative research between
the Centre for Remote Sensing and Surveillance
Technology (CRSST), Multimedia University with
funding from Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia
(MOHE) under Grant 203/PJJAUH/6711279.
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