A Robust and Multi-Weighted Approach to Estimating Topographically Correlated Tropospheric Delays in Radar Interferograms
Spatial and temporal variations in the vertical stratification of the troposphere introduce significant propagation delays in interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) observations. Observations of small amplitude surface deformations and regional subsidence rates are plagued by tropospheric...
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MDPI AG
2016-07-01
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| Series: | Sensors |
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| Online Access: | http://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/16/7/1078 |
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| author | Bangyan Zhu Jiancheng Li Zhengwei Chu Wei Tang Bin Wang Dawei Li |
| author_facet | Bangyan Zhu Jiancheng Li Zhengwei Chu Wei Tang Bin Wang Dawei Li |
| author_sort | Bangyan Zhu |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Spatial and temporal variations in the vertical stratification of the troposphere introduce significant propagation delays in interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) observations. Observations of small amplitude surface deformations and regional subsidence rates are plagued by tropospheric delays, and strongly correlated with topographic height variations. Phase-based tropospheric correction techniques assuming a linear relationship between interferometric phase and topography have been exploited and developed, with mixed success. Producing robust estimates of tropospheric phase delay however plays a critical role in increasing the accuracy of InSAR measurements. Meanwhile, few phase-based correction methods account for the spatially variable tropospheric delay over lager study regions. Here, we present a robust and multi-weighted approach to estimate the correlation between phase and topography that is relatively insensitive to confounding processes such as regional subsidence over larger regions as well as under varying tropospheric conditions. An expanded form of robust least squares is introduced to estimate the spatially variable correlation between phase and topography by splitting the interferograms into multiple blocks. Within each block, correlation is robustly estimated from the band-filtered phase and topography. Phase-elevation ratios are multiply- weighted and extrapolated to each persistent scatter (PS) pixel. We applied the proposed method to Envisat ASAR images over the Southern California area, USA, and found that our method mitigated the atmospheric noise better than the conventional phase-based method. The corrected ground surface deformation agreed better with those measured from GPS. |
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| issn | 1424-8220 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-13T09:20:41Z |
| publishDate | 2016-07-01 |
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| spelling | doaj.art-1631fa7fc8ec4e0db93af85ae633a5022022-12-22T02:52:36ZengMDPI AGSensors1424-82202016-07-01167107810.3390/s16071078s16071078A Robust and Multi-Weighted Approach to Estimating Topographically Correlated Tropospheric Delays in Radar InterferogramsBangyan Zhu0Jiancheng Li1Zhengwei Chu2Wei Tang3Bin Wang4Dawei Li5School of Geodesy and Geomatics, Wuhan University, 129 Luoyu Road, Wuhan 430079, ChinaSchool of Geodesy and Geomatics, Wuhan University, 129 Luoyu Road, Wuhan 430079, ChinaNanjing Institute of Surveying, Mapping and Geotechnical Investigation, Nanjing 210019, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Information Engineering in Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430079, ChinaSchool of Geodesy and Geomatics, Wuhan University, 129 Luoyu Road, Wuhan 430079, ChinaSchool of Geodesy and Geomatics, Wuhan University, 129 Luoyu Road, Wuhan 430079, ChinaSpatial and temporal variations in the vertical stratification of the troposphere introduce significant propagation delays in interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) observations. Observations of small amplitude surface deformations and regional subsidence rates are plagued by tropospheric delays, and strongly correlated with topographic height variations. Phase-based tropospheric correction techniques assuming a linear relationship between interferometric phase and topography have been exploited and developed, with mixed success. Producing robust estimates of tropospheric phase delay however plays a critical role in increasing the accuracy of InSAR measurements. Meanwhile, few phase-based correction methods account for the spatially variable tropospheric delay over lager study regions. Here, we present a robust and multi-weighted approach to estimate the correlation between phase and topography that is relatively insensitive to confounding processes such as regional subsidence over larger regions as well as under varying tropospheric conditions. An expanded form of robust least squares is introduced to estimate the spatially variable correlation between phase and topography by splitting the interferograms into multiple blocks. Within each block, correlation is robustly estimated from the band-filtered phase and topography. Phase-elevation ratios are multiply- weighted and extrapolated to each persistent scatter (PS) pixel. We applied the proposed method to Envisat ASAR images over the Southern California area, USA, and found that our method mitigated the atmospheric noise better than the conventional phase-based method. The corrected ground surface deformation agreed better with those measured from GPS.http://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/16/7/1078InSARtropospheric delayleast squaresrobust estimationpersistent scatterer interferometry |
| spellingShingle | Bangyan Zhu Jiancheng Li Zhengwei Chu Wei Tang Bin Wang Dawei Li A Robust and Multi-Weighted Approach to Estimating Topographically Correlated Tropospheric Delays in Radar Interferograms Sensors InSAR tropospheric delay least squares robust estimation persistent scatterer interferometry |
| title | A Robust and Multi-Weighted Approach to Estimating Topographically Correlated Tropospheric Delays in Radar Interferograms |
| title_full | A Robust and Multi-Weighted Approach to Estimating Topographically Correlated Tropospheric Delays in Radar Interferograms |
| title_fullStr | A Robust and Multi-Weighted Approach to Estimating Topographically Correlated Tropospheric Delays in Radar Interferograms |
| title_full_unstemmed | A Robust and Multi-Weighted Approach to Estimating Topographically Correlated Tropospheric Delays in Radar Interferograms |
| title_short | A Robust and Multi-Weighted Approach to Estimating Topographically Correlated Tropospheric Delays in Radar Interferograms |
| title_sort | robust and multi weighted approach to estimating topographically correlated tropospheric delays in radar interferograms |
| topic | InSAR tropospheric delay least squares robust estimation persistent scatterer interferometry |
| url | http://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/16/7/1078 |
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