High-resolution estimation of ionospheric phase screens through semi-focusing processing

Ionosphere irregularities along the synthetic aperture generate shifts and blurring that cause decorrelation. In this paper it is shown how, by partially focusing SAR images to the height of the ionosphere, it is possible to reduce the ionospheric azimuth effects and increase the coherence. This permits, even in case of turbulent ionosphere, to obtain better accuracies when separating the deformations phase from the ionospheric phase using the delta-k split-band interferometry method.

[1]  Franz J. Meyer,et al.  Estimation and compensation of ionospheric delay for SAR interferometry , 2010, 2010 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium.

[2]  Gerhard Krieger,et al.  Tandem-L: A mission proposal for monitoring dynamic earth processes , 2011, 2011 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium.

[3]  Konstantinos Papathanassiou,et al.  Estimation and correction of scintillation effects on spaceborne P-band SAR images , 2012, 2012 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium.

[4]  F. Rocca,et al.  Recovering time and space varying phase screens through SAR multi-squint differential interferometry , 2012 .

[5]  C. Rino,et al.  A power law phase screen model for ionospheric scintillation: 1. Weak scatter , 1979 .

[6]  Irena Hajnsek,et al.  Scientific requirements and feasibility on an L-band mission dedicated to measure surface deformation , 2009, 2009 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium.