SARscape

The Module provides automated pre-processing tools that allow you to quickly and easily prepare your imagery for analysis and visualization. With the Basic Module, the following processing capabilities are supported: multilooking, coregistration, despeckling, geocoding and radiometric calibration, mosaicing, feature extraction, segmentation, classification.

The SARscape Basic Module includes processing functionality for generating airborne and spaceborne SAR products, based on intensity and coherence. This is complemented by a multi-purpose tool, which includes a wide range of functions – from image visualization, to DEMs import and interpolation, to cartographic and geodetic transforms.

The Gamma and Gaussian Filter Module includes a variety of SAR-specific filters, extending the range of filters of the Basic Module.

Algorithms for this Module are based on gamma and gaussian-distributed scene models. They are particularly efficient in reducing speckle noise while preserving radar reflectivity, textural properties, and special resolution, especially in strongly textured SAR images.

This module supports the processing of Interferometric SAR and Differential Interferometric SAR data for the generation of Digital Elevation Models (DEMs), coherence, and land displacement/deformation maps.

This module enables the generation of DEMs (InSAR technique) and surface deformation maps (DInSAR technique). State-of-the-art methodology, applied to data acquired from SAR sensors, generate accurate (up to a vertical resolution of few meters) and detailed surface and terrain height products and land displacements/deformations maps with centimeter accuracy.

ScanSAR is a kind of SAR imaging technology, which achieves wide swath by switching the antenna look angle cyclically and covering several subswaths.

In case of the ScanSAR data, because of its wider coverage, the interferogram can be generated at one time covering a region as large as 500km x 500km (ASAR WS). This makes deformation monitoring over a large area much more efficient (but at cost of lower spatial resolution).

The Module supports the processing of polarimetric and polarimetric interferometric SAR data. It allows users to minimize the impact of non-ideal behaviors of a full polarimetric SAR acquisition system, in order to obtain the most accurate imaged as possible, from the available measurements, estimates of the scattering matrix. The module is applied in the determination of the forest composition, deforestation detection, forest fires, agricultural monitoring, the determination of biomass, height, and other parameters of the vegetation, and so on.

The Module integrates point-based (PS-like) and area-based (SBAS-like) techniques for the processing of interferometric stacks of SAR images acquired in the same acquisition geometry. This combined approach enables users to obtain accurate results on both point and distributed targets.

• Persistent Scatterers (PS) enables users to detect very small displacements (mm scale) and to infer the deformation velocity - and its variation over the time - in particular for very stable (man-made) reflectors that might have independent displacements in respect to the surrounding areas. The processing can be performed without any limitation in terms of data dimensions.
• Small Baseline Series (SBAS)

A complementary method that exploits Differential Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry (DIfSAR) techniques to analyze stacks of SAR acquisitions to extract small deformations over large areas, when no point targets are identified but large, correlated displacements occur over natural targets.

The combination of the two approaches allows analyzing deformation phenomena affecting both extended area (e.g. natural features) and localized structures (e.g. man-made features), related to natural or man-induced phenomena (e.g. volcanic or seismic activity, landslides, subsidence, building failures, etc.).

The Module enables the users to measure very small ground displacements and to trace the deformation rate related to natural or manmade phenomena (e.g. volcanic or seismic activity, landslides, subsidence, building collapses, etc.), with excellent accuracy and spatial and temporal detail.