TerraSAR-X StripMap data interpretation of complex urban scenarios with 3D SAR tomography

Abstract

The severe layover problem of complex urban scenarios in SAR data makes SAR data interpretation very difficult, especially for nonexperts. In this paper, we use 3D SAR tomography for SAR data interpretation of dense urban areas. An efficient and robust approach named Butterworth-filter based singular value decomposition (BSVD) is used for tomographic analysis. Two typical dense urban areas of interest located in Shanghai are analyzed. The tomographic results could help users to better understand the backscattering scenario. The experimental results indicate that SAR tomography is a promising and effective way to facilitate SAR data interpretation of complex urban areas.