On the Sensitivity to Height and Motion of Bistatic SAR Interferometry

Abstract

Assessing the performance of interferometers and processing interferograms require accurate knowledge of the temporal lag, sensitivity, and spectral shift. While these parameters are well-defined for conventional interferometric configurations, their definition becomes opaque for complex configurations, such as bistatic systems with formation-flying satellites. According to the principle of diffraction tomography, each instrument samples a distinct region of the scattering surface’s Fourier domain. Using this principle, we introduce a wavenumber-domain method for calculating the temporal lag, spectral shift, and sensitivity to height of synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) interferometers. The method calculates interferometric parameters by aligning the ground-projected wavenumber support of the SAR images forming the interferogram. Although the wavenumber-support method agrees with the conventional geometric formulations of the temporal lag and sensitivity in geometrically simple cases, the two methods diverge in more complex geometries. We show that when the two SAR satellites fly in a close-formation or have lines of sight that are squinted with respect to the zero-Doppler direction, then the geometric formulations are inadequate and the wavenumber-support method is needed to accurately estimate the interferometric parameters.