Fabio M. Rana

Multi-Chromatic Analysis of SAR Images for Coherent Target Detection

This work investigates the possibility of performing target analysis through the Multi-Chromatic Analysis (MCA), a technique that basically explores the information content of sub-band images obtained by processing portions of the range spectrum of a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image. According to the behavior of the SAR signal at the different sub-bands, MCA allows target classification. Two strategies have been experimented by processing TerraSAR-X images acquired over the Venice Lagoon, Italy: one exploiting the phase of interferometric sub-band pairs, the other using the spectral coherence derived by computing the coherence between sub-band images of a single SAR acquisition. The first approach introduces the concept of frequency-persistent scatterers (FPS), which is complementary to that of the time-persistent scatterers (PS). FPS and PS populations have been derived and analyzed to evaluate the respective characteristics and the physical nature of the targets. Spectral coherence analysis has been applied to vessel detection, according to the property that, in presence of a random distribution of surface scatterers, as for open sea surfaces, spectral coherence is expected to be proportional to sub-band intersection, while in presence of manmade structures it is preserved anyhow. First results show that spectral coherence is well preserved even for very small vessels, and can be used as a complementary information channel to constrain vessel detection in addition to classical Constant False Alarm Rate techniques based on the sole intensity channel.

Assessing the Bayesian inversion technique of C-band synthetic aperture radar data for the retrieval of wind fields in marine coastal areas

Abstract Over the past decade, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) sensors have demonstrated their ability to provide accurate wind speed and direction measurements in the ocean. Although SAR capability to image the sea surface at a suitable spatial resolution, SAR wind field retrieval in marine coastal areas still remains an open issue. The aim of this work is to assess the potential and limits of the Bayesian approach to the C-band NRCS SAR inversion problem for the retrieval of wind fields in marine coastal areas. A dataset of 139 SAR images gathered by the European ERS-2 and ENVISAT satellites during 2007 was analyzed to estimate the sea surface wind vectors over three selected coastal sites in the Mediterranean Sea, offshore Puglia region (Italy). The sites were instrumented to monitor marine and environmental parameters, including wind intensity and direction for further comparison with SAR wind estimations. Results discussed in this study show that the statistical approach in the retrieval of SAR wind speed can be applied in coastal areas with performances comparable with those obtained off-shore. In contrast, the SAR inversion procedure was not able to retrieve wind direction with the same accuracy.

Multichromatic Analysis of Satellite Wideband SAR Data

The multichromatic analysis (MCA) can be applied to interferometric pairs of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images processed at range subbands and consists of exploring the phase trend of each pixel as a function of the different central carrier frequencies. The phase of stable scatterers linearly evolves with the subband central frequency, with a slope proportional to the absolute electromagnetic path difference that can be estimated and used for both phase unwrapping and height computation. MCA has been theoretically evaluated and tested on airborne wideband SAR data, appearing optimally suited for the new generation of satellite sensors, which operate with larger bandwidths than previously available instruments, generally limited to few tens of megahertzs. In this letter, we illustrate MCA application to satellite SAR data acquired in spotlight mode over the Uluru monolith in Australia. The topographic measurements derived through MCA on the monolith are compared with those provided by a high-resolution digital elevation model from optical stereo imagery. The theoretical parametric model describing the MCA performances according to the processing parameters is also validated.

LG-Mod: A Modified Local Gradient (LG) Method to Retrieve SAR Sea Surface Wind Directions in Marine Coastal Areas

This paper describes a novel SAR wind direction estimation method based on the computation of local gradients over quasi-linear and quasi-periodic structures detected by SAR imagery. The method relies upon the standard LG method for the part relevant to the computation of the local gradients. The novelty is that the dominant local wind direction and related accuracy are estimated using results derived from the Directional Statistics. The LG-Mod is validated against in situ coastal wind measurements provided by instrumented buoys with 63 ENVISAT ASAR images. Results show an overall agreement with RMSE values obtained for off-shore areas, but residual effects due to the complex phenomena occurring in the proximity of shoreline may degrade the performance when running in automated mode.

Frequency coherent vs. temporally coherent targets

The Multi-Chromatic Analysis (MCA) uses interferometric pairs of SAR images processed at range sub-bands and explores the phase trend of each pixel as a function of the different central carrier frequencies. The MCA technique introduces the concept of targets exhibiting stable radar returns across the frequency domain (PSfd). In this work we compare this stability along frequencies with the temporal stability which is at the base of persistent scatterers interferometry (PSI) techniques. Different populations of PSfd and “temporal” PS were derived by using COSMO-SkyMed SAR data. An ad hoc processing scheme was developed to derive PSI products by processing the same range sub-bandwidth used by the MCA in order to guarantee the same scattering conditions. The populations of PSfd and “temporal” PS were compared and preliminary considerations provided concerning the scattering properties of the targets selected by the two criteria.

Quantitative analysis of stripmap and spotlight SAR interferometry with COSMO-SkyMed constellation

This work is focused on the phase validation of interferograms obtained by combining COSMO-SkyMed SAR images acquired by a single satellite (temporal baseline coincident with the orbital repeat cycle) or even by two satellites of the SAR constellation in equi-phased configuration on the orbital plane (temporal baseline: 8 days), thus minimizing the temporal decorrelation. Both qualitative and quantitative analyses have been therefore carried out for HI (HIMAGE: stripmap, single polarization) and S2 (enhanced spotlight) imaging modes, in order to proof whether or not COSMO-SkyMed constellation is well suited for SAR interferometry.

Multi-chromatic analysis of SAR images for target analysis

Multi-Chromatic Analysis (MCA) of SAR images relays on exploring sub-band images obtained by processing portions of range spectrum located at different frequency positions. It has been applied to interferometric pairs for phase uwrapping and height computation. This work investigates two promising applications: the comparison between the frequency-persistent scatterers (PSfd) and the temporal-persistent scatterers (PS), and the use of inter-band coherence of a single SAR image for vessel detection. The MCA technique introduces the concept of frequency-stable targets, i.e. objects exhibiting stable radar returns across the frequency domain which is complementary to that of temporal stability at the base of PS interferometry. Both spotlight and stripmap TerraSAR-X images acquired on the Venice Lagoon have been processed to identify PSfd and PS. Different populations have been analyzed to evaluate the respective characteristics and the physical nature of PSfd and PS. Concerning the spectral coherence, it is derived by computing the coherence between sub-images of a single SAR acquisition. In the presence of a random distribution of surface scatterers, spectral coherence must be proportional to sub-band intersection of sub-images. This model is fully verified when observing measured spectral coherence on open see areas. If scatterers distribution departs from this distribution, as for manmade structures, spectral coherence is preserved. We investigated the spectral coherence to perform vessel detection on sea background by using spotlight images acquired on Venice Lagoon. Sea background tends to lead to very low spectral coherence while this latter is preserved on the targeted vessels, even for very small ones. A first analysis shows that all vessels observable in intensity images are easily detected in the spectral coherence images which can be used as a complementary information channel to constrain vessel detection.

Interferometric Multi-Chromatic Analysis of COSMO-SkyMed data for height retrieval

The Multi-Chromatic Analysis can be applied to interferometric pairs of SAR images processed at range sub-bands, and consists of exploring the phase trend of each pixel as a function of the different central carrier frequencies. The phase of stable scatterers evolves linearly with the sub-band central wavelength, with a slope proportional to the absolute e.m. path difference. The technique appears optimally suited for the new generation of satellite sensors, which operate with larger bandwidths than previously available instruments, generally limited to few tens of MHz. A first experiment on satellite data was carried out by processing a spotlight interferometric pair of images acquired by TerraSAR-X on the well-known Uluru monolith in Australia. In the present work, we illustrate MCA processing on SAR data acquired over the same site by the COSMO-SkyMed constellation. The topographic profile of the monolith is successfully reconstructed. Furthermore, the results are also compared with those previously derived by processing TerraSAR-X data.

On the use of SAR interferometry to aid navigation of UAV

This study is aimed at exploring the potentials of SAR Interferometry (InSAR) to aid Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) navigation. The basic idea is to infer both position and attitude of an aerial platform by inspecting the InSAR phase derived by a real time SAR interferometer mounted onboard the platform. Thanks to the expected favorable conditions in terms of geometrical sensitivity as well as signal coherence, the InSAR phase field can be used to derive the terrain elevation. By using both approximated position and attitude values of the platform as well as a reference Digital Terrain Model (DTM) from a mission database available onboard, it is possible to generate a synthetic InSAR phase model to be compared w.r.t. that derived by SAR observations. The geometrical transformation needed to match these two terrain models depends on the difference between position and attitude values derived by the instruments available on board and their actual values. Hence, this matching provides a feedback to be used for adjusting position and attitude. In order to assess the reliability of the proposed approach, we evaluated the interferometric sensitivity to changes in position and attitude. This analysis defines the limits of applicability of the InSAR-based approach and provides indications and requirements on geometric and radiometric parameters.

C- and X-band multi-pass InSAR analysis over Alpine areas (ITALY)

In the present work we present first results of ground deformation measurements inferred through repeat-pass Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Interferometry (InSAR) in C- and X-band over an Italian Alpine area, in Lombardia region. The activity was carried out in the framework of the MORFEO (MOnitoraggio e Rischio da Frana mediante dati EO) project founded by the Italian Spatial Agency (ASI) and dedicated to landslide risk assessment. A number of areas affected by hydrogeological instabilities have been selected and studied in detail by processing both C- and X-band SAR data through SPINUA, a Persistent Scatterer like algorithm. In particular, two stacks of 30 Ascending ENVISAT SAR images (October 2004 - January 2009) and 32 Descending ENVISAT SAR images (December 2004 - January 2009) have been independently processed to ensures the detection of movements occurring along both west and east facing slopes. Moreover, further deformation measurements have been obtained by processing a set of 12 COSMO-SkyMED ascending HIMAGE interferometric acquisitions (Satellite CSKS1; Beam HI-03; POL: HH; Incidence Angle: 29°) provided by ASI. After a proper tuning of the interferometric algorithmic solutions, even with very high normal baselines, we are able to appreciate the potentials of X-band interferometry. Although the number of COSMO-SkyMED acquisitions is quite limited, spanning a period of only 10 months (August 2008 - June 2009), SPINUA was capable to retrieve preliminary ground displacement patterns that are in good agreement with those previously estimated in C-band. Quite impressive is to realize that, because of the tenfold improved resolution of X-band images, multi-temporal InSAR techniques may be successfully applied for the estimation of the displacement maps with a number of acquisitions much lower than in C-band. InSAR-derived displacements provided on areas of hydrogeological interest are going to be validated in the framework of MORFEO project by the geological partnership thanks to the availability of ground truths. In the present work, we present the results obtained on the towns of Garzeno, Catasco and Germasino which are affected by landslide phenomena. We provide a first validation by comparing the deformation maps derived from ENVISAT C-band data, from COSMO-SkyMED X-band data as well as from ERS and RADARSAT C-band data freely available on the GeoIFFI web-catalogue.