Permanent scatterers analysis for atmospheric correction in ground-based SAR interferometry

Abstract—Ground-based synthetic aperture radar (GB-SAR) interferometry has already been recognized as a powerful tool, complementary or alternative to spaceborne SAR interferometry, for terrain monitoring, and for detecting structural changes in buildings. It has been noted that, in spite of the very short range, compared with the satellite configuration, in GB-SAR measurement the disturbances due to atmospheric effects cannot be neglected either. The analysis of the interferometric phases of very coherent points, called permanent scatterers (PSs), allows the evaluation of the atmospheric disturbance and the possibility of removing it. In this paper, the PS analysis is carried out both on a test site facility and on a real campaign (Citrin Valley, Italy) that provided data with a temporal baseline of about ten months. Index Terms—Atmospheric effect, ground-based synthetic aper- ture radar (GB-SAR) interferometry, landslide monitoring, per- manent scatterer (PS), radar. La copertina della rivista riporta la foto del principale risultato scientifico descritto nell'articolo.