Tutorial V 2 0

SBAS Tutorial
Version 2.0
July 2013
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Index
SBAS workflow ........................................................................................................................................ 3

Main performed steps and relative sub-steps ............................................................................................ 4
Training Data sets description .................................................................................................................. 5
SBAS processing chain tools..................................................................................................................... 7
Before start ......................................................................................................................................... 7
Connection Graph Generation ............................................................................................................. 12
Area of Interest Definition .................................................................................................................. 21
Interferometric Workflow ................................................................................................................... 22
Refinement and Re-Flattening ............................................................................................................ 41
Inversion First Step ............................................................................................................................ 50
Inversion Second Step ....................................................................................................................... 60
Geocoding ......................................................................................................................................... 66
Raster to Shape Conversion ................................................................................................................ 74
Edit Connection Graph ....................................................................................................................... 81
Resume of used parameters .................................................................................................................. 82
The GPS usage ..................................................................................................................................... 83
Mosaicking of SBAS results .................................................................................................................... 90
References ........................................................................................................................................... 91
Acknowledge ........................................................................................................................................ 92
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SBAS workflow
The logical workflow of the SBAS module is shown in the following Figure.
Figure 1. Logical workflow for the SBAS module.
The list of the corresponding tools is given in the next section, and each of them is described in the details in
the following part of the document.
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Main performed steps and relative sub-steps
1. Connection Graph Generation

2. Area of interest Definition
3. Interferometric Workflow
3.1. Co-registration
3.2. Interferograms generation-flattening-filtering
3.3. Unwrapping
4. Refinement and Re-Flattening
5. Inversion First Step
5.1. Velocity and residual topography estimation
5.2. Mean power image and precision component estimation
5.3. Second Unwrapping
6. Inversion Second Step
6.1. Refinement and Re-flattening
6.2. Displacement component estimation
6.3. Atmosphere pattern removal
6.4. Coherence and other layers estimation
7. Geocoding
7.1. Velocity and precision results geocoding
7.2. Displacement geocoding
8. Raster to Shape Conversion
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Training Data sets description
This tutorial is intended to give an exhaustive description of the SARscape SBAS processing chain. The main
goal is to help the user during his applications. For this reason most of the figures shown in this tutorial, are
taken from two real training stacks. The entire sample data stack and the SBAS results are provided together
with this tutorial. SARscape version 5.0.001 and ENVI version 5.0 (service pack 3) are used. For some
particular tools, and to speed up some files visualization (e.g. file meta), also ENVI classic is used.
The area of interest chosen is the Chiba prefecture (Japan) close to Tokyo. Two dataset are available:
ENVISAT-ASAR and ALOS-PALSAR. They have a similar the same spatial and temporal coverage, to better
compare the retrieved results. Moreover the GPS measurements (with a daily position measurement rate)
are provided. The GPS will then be used to validate the SBAS results obtained.
The ASAR dataset contains 34 descending acquisitions in IS2 acquisition mode and VV polarization. The
temporal coverage is from 2006-09-04 till 2010-08-09.
The PALSAR dataset contain 23 descending acquisitions in single or dual polarization (FBS-FBD) HH channel.
The temporal coverage is from 2006-08 26 till 2010 10 22.
Figure 2. The red shape defines the coverage of the ASAR sample stack and the blue shape defines the
coverage of the PALSAR sample stack.
The following table shows, there are the acquisition lists of ASAR and PALSAR dataset.
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ASAR stack PALSAR stack
Asar_20060904_slc Palsar_FBD_20060826_slc
Asar_20070611_slc Palsar_FBS_20070226_slc
Asar_20090302_slc
Asar_20090511_slc
Asar_20090720_slc
Asar_20090928_slc
Asar_20091207_slc
Asar_20100215_slc
Asar_20100322_slc
Asar_20100426_slc
Asar_20100531_slc
Asar_20100705_slc
Asar_20100809_slc
Table 1. ASAR and PALSAR stack list.
Each of the provided binary raster files are delivered with 3 auxiliary files:
.hdr (an ASCII header for ENVI visualization)

.sml (an ASII header for SARscape processing with the main acquisition information)
.kml (a ASII file for the Google Earth).
In this training area a lot of terrain subsidence and some uplifts pattern are expected. The ground
displacements are caused by gas extraction and water injection.
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SBAS processing chain tools
Before start
Figure 3. ENVI Preferences panel. Suggested settings
The automatic generation of visualisation files in TIFF format can be activated through the SARscape ->
Default Values -> General panel. It will remain active also for the rest of the SBAS processing. 8 bit TIFF
files will be generated for the results and the most relevant intermediate files. The TIFF generation tool
exploits a particular amplitude + phase colour coding for the interferograms (complex files). The display of
these TIFF files helps the user to better analyse the SBAS processing proceeding, with respect to the original
complex files. The complex interferograms shown in this tutorial are in the TIFF version.
The Cartographic Grid Size should be set taking into account the acquisition sensor spatial resolution. This
parameter is used for the automatic multi-looking during the Super Master power image generation. This
parameter will not affect the SBAS processing, but only the visualization of this power image in the Area of
Interest Generation tool.
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Figure 4. SARscape Default panel, tag General. Suggested settings for ASAR and PALSAR processing
Figure 5. SARscape Default panel, tag Directories. Suggested settings for ASAR processing (on the left) and
for PALSAR processing (on the right)
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Figure 6. SARscape Default panel, tag Adaptive Filter. Main parameters that can be tuned to improve the
interferograms generation during the Interferometric Workflow step
Figure 7. SARscape Default panel, tag Coregistration. Main parameters that can be tuned to improve the
co-registration during the Interferometric Workflow step
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Figure 8. SARscape Default panel, tag Flattening. Main parameters that can be tuned to improve the
refinement during Refine and Re-flattening step and Inversion Second step
Figure 9. SARscape Default panel, tag Flattening. Main parameters that can be tuned to improve the
interferograms generation (automatic strong orbital fringes removal) during the Interferometric Workflow
step. This setting is recommended for strong orbit inaccuracy, for flattened interferograms with many
residual fringes.
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Figure 10. SARscape Batch Browser panel, where the Ignore Errors and Continue Batch flag is un-checked
An accurate reference Digital Elevation Model (DEM), in an ellipsoidal reference system, is needed before
going on with the processing. If a better DEM is not available, can be used the freeware SRTM. If the web
server is online and no firewall blocks the ftp connection, it can be easily downloaded by SARscape.
TIP: download of a common reference DEM that covers both the working training stacks ASAR and
PALSAR.
Figure 11. Digital Elevation Model Extraction tool. A common SRTM reference DEM is downloaded on the
covered area by the two sensors ASAR and PALSAR
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Connection Graph Generation
This step defines the combination of pairs (interferograms) that will be processed by the SBAS. These pairs
are shown as connections in a network that links each acquisition to the others. Given N acquisitions, the
maximum theoretical available connections are (N*(N-1))/2. The Connection Graph Generation tool allows to
choose the most a-priori reliable connections. These pairs will correspond to a stack of unwrapped
interferograms (after the Interferometric Workflow and the Refinement and Re-Flattening tools), used as
input measures for the SBAS inversion kernel (Inversion First Step and Inversion Second Step tools).
The Super Master will be automatically chosen among the input acquisitions. The Super Master is the
reference image of the whole processing, and all the processed slant range pairs will be co-registered on this
reference geometry. The user can decide by himself which image shall be the Super Master. However, this is
not strictly necessary because the final results are not affected by this selection. By choosing manually the
reference Super Master manually there could be the risk of retrieving a Super Master with few connections.
It could be a limitation when the low coherent pairs have to be discarded (by using the SBAS Edit
Connection Graph tool).
Figure 12. Connection Graph tool ASAR processing
Figure 13. Connection Graph tool PALSAR processing
It is advisable to enlarge a bit the temporal and normal baseline connection constrains with respect to the
default ones. The normal baseline can be enlarged up to 45% to 50% of the critical baseline, depending on
the sensor type and the user experience, without losing completely the spatial coherence. The temporal
baseline depends on the area of interest. In dry areas it can be chosen also up to 500 - 800 days (about 2
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years or more) of maximum temporal separation. In wet / densely green areas this parameter shall
drastically decrease, because no coherent pairs can be found between acquisitions with large temporal
separation. In some cases there might be one dry coherent season (e.g. winter), and it is possible to
retrieve a better coherence in one year (from winter season to the next one) than in a month (e.g. during
summer or spring). By leaving this constrains larger than the default the software will generate a bigger
amount of interferograms to fulfil the settings. The user will have the opportunity to remove the bad pairs
/ connections later on, just before the Inversion First Step or Inversion Second Step. The software can deal
with spotlight and stripmap interferometrizable data. The ALOS PALSAR data, both FBD and FBS acquisitions
(dual and single polarizations with different slant range spatial resolution) can be used together during the
processing, provided that the same polarisation for the ingested data is be used. According to the spectral
shift theory on distributed targets, the critical baseline changes depending on the slant range bandwidth
(range spatial resolution). This parameter is taken into account by the Generate Connection Graph tool: the
normal baseline constrain is just a percentage of the critical baseline of each pair.
The tool takes also into account the Doppler Centroid difference between the images combined to generate
the interferograms. Those pairs, for which the Doppler difference is larger than the azimuth bandwidths, are
automatically discarded.
Figure 14. ASAR processing: multi-looked power image of the Super Master acquisition
(SM_Asar_20080804_slc_pwr image in _SBAS_processing/work/work_super_master folder), shown by ENVI
with SARscape image stretch visualization
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Figure 15. PALSAR processing: multi-looked power image of the Super Master acquisition
(SM_Palsar_FBD_20081201_slc_pwr image in _SBAS_processing/work/work_super_master folder), shown
by ENVI with SARscape image stretch visualization
The connection graph plots are drawn with segments, corresponding each to an interferometric pair to be
processed. Each linked point correspond to an input acquisition. The selected acquisitions are displayed as
green points, the discarded one as red points and the reference (Super Master) as yellow point. Two kinds
of representations are provided: Time versus Relative Position (respect to the Super Master position), and
Time versus Normal Baseline.
Figure 16. Plots generated by the Connection Graph Generation tool ASAR processing: Time versus Relative
Position (on the left), and Time versus Normal Baseline (on the right)
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Figure 17. Plots generated by the Connection Graph Generation tool PALSAR processing: Time versus
Relative Position (on the left), and Time versus Normal Baseline (on the right)
The graph with the positions (relative to the Super Master Position) is useful to understand if the network is
well connected: it should be homogeneous and every acquisition should be connected with others with an
high redundancy. The suggested ideal average number of connections per acquisition is a minimum of 5. If
a group of acquisition cannot be connected to the main network, all the acquisitions belonging to this group
are discarded. The standard usage of SBAS needs the whole graph to be fully connected. For this reason it is
suggest collecting images at a quite regular time interval, and small baselines. If this is not possible, the
SBAS can also work with temporal holes and it is able to connect the time series before and after such a
temporal hole. By activating the Allow Disconnected Blocks option, the SBAS module can deal with this kind
of networks, avoiding to discard the separate group of acquisitions: the voids in the retrieved displacement
temporal series will be interpolated by using the model choosen during the Inversion First Step (e.g. linear,
quadratic or cubic). Anyway, the recommended setting to obtain more reliable results is to disable the Allow
Disconnected Blocks option.
Remember that the higher the redundancy, the more reliable will be the displacement rate estimation.
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Figure 18. Comparison between a graph with strict constrains on the normal and temporal baseline (on the
left), and the same obtained by activating the Allow Disconnected Blocks option (on the right)
The SBAS can also be used as an automatic tool to generate large series of interferograms, e.g. for
visualization purposes. For this reason it can be chosen to generate Only Forward Pairs. This does not bring
any improvement to the final result, and it can be left not active.
With the Connection Graph Generation tool can be decided if the further SBAS steps might exploit the 3D
unwrapping (Delaunay 3D); this method is more reliable than the standard 2D unwrapping because it
exploits the temporal information to help unwrapping the low coherent interferograms areas, looking at the
other coherent pairs. To use this method a minimum number of acquisitions should be available: 12-15. If
there are fewer acquisitions available, it is better to proceed with the standard unwrapping, owing the risk of
the 3D not converging to a correct solution. The Delaunay 3D needs the Redundancy High setting to be
activated.
Once the 3D flag is activated, the Connection Graph tool will generate also a third plot: Time versus Relative
Position respect the Super Master, obtained through a Delaunay triangulation. These connections are a
subset of the whole main network, and represent such interferograms that will be unwrapped in a 3D way.
The remaining connections represent the interferograms that will be unwrapped in 2D; however they can
still bring coherent and useful measurement as additional input for the inversion.
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Figure 19. Subset of the whole connection Graph that will be unwrapped in 3D. From ASAR processing (on
the left) and from PALSAR processing (on the right)
Pay attention to the good functioning of the 3D unwrapping and make sure that the 3D Delaunay network is
compact, i.e. without many holes, or lot of border connections. The user can try to enlarge the baseline
constrains to obtain a good network within the limit of the available data distribution.
Figure 20. Good Delaunay network (on the left) vs. bad Delaunay network (on the right)
It is important to point out that the next steps performing the unwrapping (Interferometric Workflow and
Inversion First Step) will require more time if the 3D unwrapping is used.
The Connection Graph step create the entire output tree of folders that will contain:
the results (raster, shape, kml, etc);

the intermediate files that can be visualized by the user to perform some tuning or editing;
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the working folders used by the SBAS to proceed with the processing, and to resume whenever it
has been stopped;
The list of used parameters;
The information plot.
The main folder is called output_name_SBAS_processing. It contains a work folder and a folder for each
step performed by the SBAS. Moreover, an auxiliary file is generated: auxiliary.xml.
Figure 21. Example of auxiliary file
The auxiliary file is used in all the following SBAS steps. This file is the SBAS central thread; it reports the
necessary information as the internal path folders locations, and contains the list of steps and sub-steps
performed by the SBAS. Should a step of the SBAS processing be stopped for any reason, the same can be
started again and the SBAS module will be able to continue from the last processed pair on, without re-
starting from scratch. To further simplify this procedure, the steps to be executed can be stored in a batch
sequence so that it will be very easy to stop them and let them continue again by exploiting the Batch
Browser tool. Moreover, it is possible to edit this file when the user decides to perform again a particular
operation. For example: while looking at the filtered interferograms, or at the unwrapped phase, it was
discovered that a new tuning of the parameters should be done. To remake a sub-step, the auxiliary file
must be edited by setting NotOK the corresponding sub-step, and setting to 0 the relative counters. Once
the SBAS is called again, it will start from here and will go on, by skipping the previous sub-steps and hence
saving time. Attention is to be paid to the fact that the sub-steps are ordered according to their execution
sequence. It means that all the following sub-step after the NotOK will be performed again.
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Example: the re-flattening (and the next steps) must be re-done:
Portion of the Auxiliary as before re-starting:
<reflat>OK</reflat>
<reflat_master>20</reflat_master>
<reflat_slave>0</reflat_slave>
Same portion after proper editing, that will force the re-execution of the flattening when the tool is re-
started:
<reflat>NotOK</reflat>
<reflat_master>0</reflat_master>
<reflat_slave>0</reflat_slave>
For any reason it could also be decided to execute again one entire SBAS step. In this case no editing is
requested to the auxiliary file: just call again the desired SBAS tool with the Rebuild All flag active.
At the end of the execution of the Connection Graph Generation a popup appears showing the content of
the Report file. This file contains the list of images to be process and a sequence of useful information.
Figure 22. Report File from ASAR processing (on the left) and from PALSAR processing (on the right)
In the first lines are reported the valid acquisitions list with the corresponding numeric identifiers. These
unique IDs are shown in the plots, and the ID is used during the SBAS tool. After the list, the chosen
reference Super Master is shown, and the list of master-slave combinations that correspond to the
Connection graph plot follows.
The processed pair nomenclature is the following: _MasterDate_m_ID_SlaveDate_s_ID. In this way, it is

easy to retrieve which is the pair under analysis by looking at the acquisition dates and-or the acquisition
IDs.
All the possible combinations between acquisitions are listed at the end of the report file. This file can hence
be used to analyse the reason why a certain combination has been discarded (temporal baseline and-or
normal baseline constrains not fulfilled, and-or Doppler difference exceeded, etc.). The report file
(CG_report.txt) can be found within the _SBAS_processing\connection_graph folder.
When the execution of this step is completed, it is recommended to open the multi-looked image of the
Super Master (the multi-looking is choose automatic by the software using the expected grid size set in the
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SARscape General Default Values). At this stage the power image is just for visualization purposes, to watch
the area that will be analysed. This power image will be used only by the Area of interest tool, as reference
to define the AOI in slant range coordinates when it is not specified in geocoded coordinates: in this case
the AOI slant range coordinates must be choose on this power image.
It is important to say that all the plots and the report file can be visualized later on, whenever needed, by
using the SBAS Plot Viewer tool.
Another important file to take into account is the work_parameters.sml file, located in the work folder. This
file documents the setting of all parameters used to run the SBAS process. This file may be useful to
remember to the user, whenever he need it, the settings exploited to process the actual data stack (as for
example in case of Incremental SBAS processing).
The incremental mode is intended to save processing time whenever a new acquisition is be added to an
existing stack: the exploitation of this file makes not necessary to perform again the whole interferometry on
all the pairs, but just on the newer ones. In this case it is better to set on the new stack, the same
parameters used for the old one (e.g. the same multi-looking, the same thresholds etc.).
When the incremental mode is used, the Connection Graph generation must not be performed again!
The input acquisitions location as well as the SBAS output folder cannot be moved till the end of the
Interferometric Workflow. After this step the user can decide to move the SBAS output folder
anywhere he likes and there perform the rest of the SBAS process.
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Area of Interest Definition
When the land displacement area is known (location and dimension) and it is smaller than the whole frame
coverage, it is better to focus the attention only on this point; the SBAS processing time will then be
significantly reduced as the hard disk usage.
A working area over the reference Super Master can hence be defined with this tool; the entire input data
stack will be resized accordingly to the pixels shift values of each acquisition with respect to the reference
one. The acquisition samples are stored in a new folder inside the output root path.
This tool is optional. If it is not performed, the SBAS will process the entire dataset.
Figure 23. Area of Interest Definition tool.
An area of interest a bit larger than the real interest area (at least 200 pixels more) should be defined, since
the processing filters can cause some border effects. Among these filters, the atmospheric filter (applied
during the Second Inversion Step tool) must be particularly taken into account. This filter has a window
dimension corresponding to some km on the ground (typically 1.2 km as default): for this reasons the AOI
should be defined with a buffer of 2-3 km around the real area of interest. In any case the entire AOI should
not be smaller than 2-300 pixels by 2-300 pixels.
If the user is working in incremental mode, and in the previous SBAS process the Area of Interest Definition
step has been called, it is necessary to start again from this step to process the added acquisitions and the
new pairs connections.
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Interferometric Workflow
The aim of this tool is to generate a stack of unwrapped interferograms, as defined by the Connection Graph
Generation tool and on the area extracted with the Area of Interest Definition tool. All of the interferograms
are finally co-registered on the Super Master geometry, and ready for the Refinement and Re-Flattening tool
and the SBAS inversion kernels.
At this stage it is important to define the slant range multi-looking for the interferograms generation. This is
typically calculated in order to obtain an almost square pixel of the same sensor resolution (the worst
between range and azimuth direction).
Tip It is advisable to work with a multi-looking bigger than 1:1, for two reasons:
To increase the SNR of the interferograms and provide a more reliable coherence estimation
Speed up the processing on large areas.
By increasing the multi-looking factor, the pixel spatial resolution decrease.
To estimate the most appropriate multi-looking, open the super master single look complex SARscape
header (.sml).
ASAR processing :
Extract from Asar_20080804_slc.sml
<PixelSpacingRg>7.8039736747741699</PixelSpacingRg>
<PixelSpacingAz>4.0482587814331099</PixelSpacingAz>
<IncidenceAngle>22.8283805847168</IncidenceAngle>
GroundRangePixelSpacing = PixelSpacingRg / sin(IncidenceAngle) = 20.114
For an almost square pixel of 20 meters the correct multi-looking should be:
Multi-look range = 1
Multi-look azimuth = groundRangePixelSpacing/PixelSpacingAz = 4.048 = 4
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Figure 24. Interferometric Workflow tool for ASAR processing ready to be stored in batch
PALSAR processing:
Extract from Palsar_FBD_20081201_slc.sml
<PixelSpacingRg> 9.3685143125000003</PixelSpacingRg>
<PixelSpacingAz> 3.0763831492826301</PixelSpacingAz>
<IncidenceAngle> 38.737000000000002</IncidenceAngle>
groundRangePixelSpacing = PixelSpacingRg / sin(IncidenceAngle) = 14.972
For an almost square pixel of 15 meters the correct multi-looking should be :
Multi-look range = 1
Multi-look azimuth = groundRangePixelSpacing/PixelSpacingAz = 4.878 = 5
Figure 25. Interferometric Workflow tool for PALSAR processing ready to be stored in batch
In case of different pixel spacing in the input data stack (as for example the PALSAR FBD-FBS stack), the
software will tune automatically the multi-looking for each analyzed pair, to obtain the same pixel dimension
set by the user with the multi-looking factor on the Super Master image.
At this stage it is important to obtain the best possible interferometrically-processed stack, and to do it the
user can, if necessary, tune properly the most relevant parameters. This is shown in the following for the
main parameters, together with the co effect.
As first step it is recommended to have a look at the (complex) flattened and filtered interferograms (also
called wrapped interferograms in the following); the second and most important thing is to have a look at
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the unwrapped phases. To accomplish these steps, the _SBAS_processing\interferogram_stacking folder will
appear in the _SBAS_processing, containing the meta files of all the flattened-filtered interferograms
(*_fint), of the coherence (*_cc) and of the unwrapped phase (*_upha) files. If the generate tiff flag has
been activated, a folder called _SBAS_processing\interferogram_stacking\interf_tiff will also appear,
containing all the tiff files of the _fint, _upha, and _cc.
First of all, the wrapped interferograms list should be analysed by opening in ENVI the relative meta file, or
more easily watching the generated *_fint_ql.tiff. This screening is fundamental. Un-wanted behaviours,
data problems (as inaccurate orbits), un-coherent pairs, etc. can be discovered in this way. Moreover, the
displacement location can be discovered or confirmed. The next pictures show some representative
examples.
Figure 26. On the left: wrapped interferogram with problem during the flattening sub-step (there are too
many systematic residual fringes). This could be caused by strong orbit inaccuracy or issues with some
parameter settings. On the center: wrapped interferogram blurred in range direction due to too low common
bandwidth between the two acquisitions. The cause could be the wrong parameters used in the co-
registration (it is probably enough to increase the windows number in the defalut panel before perform the
Interferometric Workflow step). If only few pairs like the left and the central ones are found in the stack,
they can be discarded. Otherwise, if the pairs are many, the cause of such a problem must be discovered
and the Interferometric Workflow step must be executed again from scratch(it can be use the Rebuild all
flag). On the right: wrapped interferogram with very low coherence (no clear visible fringes). The cause is
the very large temporal (phenological changes) and / or normal baseline between the two acquisition used
to make the interferogram. This pair should be discarded
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Figure 27. Interferograms with very low coherence from ASAR processing. On the left:
IS_20100215_m_28_20100322_s_29_fint_ql.tif. Too low common bandwidth between the two acquisitions.
On the right: IS_20080804_m_18_20080421_s_15_fint_ql.tif. The cause here is the very large temporal
(phenological changes) and / or normal baseline between the two acquisition used to make the
interferogram. Both of these interferograms should be discarded because only noise and no useful
measurement are contained.
Figure 28. Interferograms with quite low coherence from PALSAR processing. On the left:
IS_20080531_m_7_20061011_s_1_fint_ql.tif . On the right: IS_20080531_m_7_20061126_s_2_fint_ql.tif.
For both interferograms the coherence is not completely lost and the cause is the very large temporal
baseline between the two acquisition that mostly affect the vegetation areas. Depending on the percentage
with respect to the entire number of processed interferograms, this pair could be discarded or it could be
tried to perform again the adaptive filter. The Goldstein adaptive fiter can be made stronger by tuning the
parameters in the defalut panel before performing the Interferometric Workflow step.
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Figure 29. Displacement patterns with atmospheric artefacts from ASAR processing. On the left:
IS_20091207_m_27_20100705_s_32_fint_ql.tif. On the right: IS_20070611_m_6_20081013_s_20_fint_ql.tif
with severe atmospheric artefacts, that will be minimised / removed during the SBAS Inversion Second Step.
Figure 30. Wrapped interferograms with some residual topography (in the right-down right part of the
images) with weak atmospheric artefacts from PALSAR processing. On the left:
IS_20061011_m_1_20071014_s_5_fint_ql.tif . On the right: IS_20061011_m_1_20060826_s_0_fint_ql.tif .
The atmospheric artefacts will be minimised / removed during the SBAS Inversion Second Step, while the
residual topography effect can be minimised by using a better reference DEM, if available. The residual
topographic component will also be estimated during the Inversion First Step and subtracted from the
original interferograms.
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The residual topography is mostly emphasized in those pairs with a large normal baseline. Since the phase
value is linearly proportional to the normal baseline component of the interferograms, it can be clearly
identified.
On the other hand, the displacement is mostly emphasized in large temporal baseline pairs. Since the phase
value is linearly proportional to the temporal baseline component of the interferograms, it can be clearly
identified.
The phase is proportional to the temporal baseline of the interferograms.
Figure 31. Here the temporal behaviour of a subsidence is evident in the sequence of interferograms
having the same master and with different temporal baseline. Every colour cycle correspond to half wave
length (1.55 cm) displacement along the satellite Line Of Sight.
Figure 32. The displacement pattern can be clearly recognized in the centre of both interferograms.
However, large residual fringes remain due to atmospheric artefacts (in particular in the left image),
together with a small ramp due to the orbit inaccuracies.
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Figure 33. These 4 interferograms have a quite strong residual phase ramp (mostly in range direction)
originating from the orbit inaccuracies, together with a large atmospheric patterns.
After the first screening we have the option to increase or decrease the interferometric filter power. This
should be increased if too many interferograms show low coherent areas, decrease it if the spatial resolution
of fast processes has been compromised. We can decide to decrease the filter power if the area is highly
coherent, as for example in very dry regions. Attention is to be paied to the sandy areas, where the
coherence can be lost even in few days of separation due to the wind on the dunes. A good option is to
evaluate the best parameter tuning via the standard interferometry tools (INSAR module) on single
representative pairs. The Goldstein filter is typically the adopted one. To increase the filtering effects, just
open the SARscape Adaptive Filter Default Values, and increase the alphas values and - or the window size
(the window size should be relate to the fringes frequency: fast fringes should be treated with smaller
window sizes).
In case of strong orbit inaccuracy can be used the automatic Remove Residual Phase Frequency (SARscape
Default -> Flattening) to improve the interferograms quality before the unwrapping sub-step. This
configuration should be adopted only in particular cases:
when there are many residual fringes, strongly non linear

when the frame dimension is big enough to respect the displacement pattern size. On the contrary
the true displacement fringes can be confused as residual fringes and removed.
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Figure 34. Example of strong orbit inaccuracy and the usage of the automatic Remove Residual Phase
Frequency (SARscape Default -> Flattening). On the left side the original filtered interferogram. In the
centre the automatic estimated polynomial residual phase. On the right the same filtered interferogram after
the residual phase removal.
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Figure 35. Example of strong orbit inaccuracy and the usage of the automatic Remove Residual Phase
Frequency (SARscape Default -> Flattening). On the left side the original filtered interferogram. In the
centre the automatic estimated polynomial residual phase. On the right the same filtered interferogram after
the residual phase removal.
If only the filtering has to be re-executed, just edit the auxiliary file at the right sub-step, and the software
will skip the co-registration estimation, starting directly from the requested sub-step and continuing from
there.
The second group of results to be checked are the unwrapped phase files. Remember that these are THE
important inputs of the SBAS inversion kernel: the aim of a better interferometric filtering is only to help the
unwrapping task! In this case, the fastest way to perform a screening is to open the _upha meta file
(..SBAS_processing\interferogram_stacking\IS_upha_list_meta) in ENVI.
30
Figure 36. ENVI available band list when the meta file is opened, from ASAR processing (on the left) and
from PALSAR processing (on the right). The acronyms _del is present in the 3D (Delaunay) unwrapped pairs.
The others have been unwrapped with the standard 2D method.
Figure 37. ENVI classic Arbitrary Profiles (Transpect). Unwrapped phase with phase jump (scroll window on
the left and zoom window on the right). The white part is anisland disjoint from the rest of the image
because there is no continuity between the phase values across the island borders. This island is a
distorsion that can affect the SBAS results. The damage exent of the results depends on the percentage of
pairs showing this kind of problems, and on the island location: if it is far from the displacement area, the
SBAS results can be edited a posteriori.
31
Figure 38. ENVI classic Arbitrary Profiles (Transpect) plot. The profile shows such discontinuity of a full
phase cycle (2).
Figure 39. Examples of perfectly unwrapped phase in high coherent area from ASAR processing. On the
left: IS_20090302_m_23_20091207_s_27_del_upha . On the right:
IS_20081117_m_21_20071203_s_11_upha. Here the ENVI rainbow colour table has been chosen to
emphasize the potential phase jumps (this can help during the screening to find bad unwrapped pairs
faster). No evidence of phase jumps is visible in the two unwrapped interferograms.
32
Figure 40. Examples of perfectly unwrapped phase in high coherent area from PALSAR processing. On the
left: IS_20081201_m_11_20080831_s_9_del_upha. On the right:
IS_20090116_m_12_20090603_s_13_del_upha. Here the ENVI rainbow colour table has been chosen to
emphasize the potential phase jumps (this can help during the screening to find bad unwrapped pairs
faster). No evidence of phase jumps is visible in the two unwrapped interferograms.
Note that by using the same coherence threshold in both data set, the PALSAR coverage is bigger than the
ASAR coverage due to the different wavelength behaviour over the vegetation. The SNR is stronger in L
band to respect C band. But, on the contrary, the displacement resolution will be worst with PALSAR.
Figure 41. On the left: flattened and filtered (wrapped) interferogram

IS_20080908_m_19_20070507_s_5_fint with quite low coherence (with respect to the rest of the
interferograms stack) from ASAR processing. On the right: unwrapped phase
IS_20080908_m_19_20070507_s_5_upha. There are many small phase jumps. There are two options: try to
increase the adaptive filter Goldtein strenght, or discard this useless pair (in this case this is the right choice)
with the SBAS Edit Connection Graph tool.
33
Figure 42. On the left: flattened and filtered (wrapped) interferogram
IS_20080531_m_7_20061126_s_2_fint with low coherence (respect the rest of the interferograms stack)
from PALSAR processing. On the right: unwrapped phase IS_20080531_m_7_20061126_s_2_upha. Quite
few points are over the chosen coherence threshold, and some of them are in a phase jump discontinuity.
There are two options: decrease the threshold, with the risk of incorporating too many noisy pixels, or
discard this useless pair (in this case this is the right choice) with the SBAS Edit Connection Graph tool.
34
Figure 43. Phase unwrapping problem: original interferogram (on the left) and unwrapped phase (on the
right). The long, straight discontinuity of the phase results from the wrong unwrapping of this interferogram
with very sparse coherence. The percentage of such failures (due to an error of identifying just one 2
phase jump in the whole image) is tipically of about 2-5% of the processed pairs in a stack with reasonable
number of images and a suitable connection graph. This pair should be discarded, if the editing is not
affordable.
35
Figure 44. On the left: flattened and filtered interferogram with residual orbital fringes. On the right:
unwrapped phase, where the phase ramp coming from these orbital fringes is more visible. Note that no
linear, clear systematic phase jumps may be identified in the unwrapped phase that might be related to
unwrapping errors.
After the second screening step on the unwrapped phase, can be increase or decrease the coherence
threshold value. This has to be increased if too many unwrapped noisy areas are present (on average) in the
stack and decreased if only some pixels (on average) have been unwrapped in the stack, not enough to
properly cover the interest areas with redundancy.
The recommended default unwrapping method for the SBAS is the Delaunay MCF (it is compulsory if 3D
unwrapping has been chosen): this method works well for the connection of groups of high coherence pixels
to others isolated high coherence groups. This is a quite frequent situation in wet or green regions. In any
case it works quite well also in almost all the feasible situations, and it is the default method. The Delaunay
MCF can cause some problems in case of really strong residual topography or really strong displacement. In
these rare cases the classic MCF can also be tested.
Another important factor is the Decomposition level (DCL). The default is 1. By using a DCL higher than
zero, the unwrapping is performed on an under-sampled version of the input wrapped file (depending on the
number of decomposition), easier to unwrap. The details lost during the under-sampling steps are taken into
account during a following over-sampling step, to recover the original image resolution. The critical step is
36
the under-sampling: The critical step is the under-sampling: when very fast fringes (compared to the under-
sampling factor at each step) are mixed together (aliasing), the next sequence of oversampling will not be
able to retrieve the exact original number of cycles.
Input wrapped Out unwrapped

interferogram Residue Add interferogram
Multi-looking Over-sampling
Residue Add
Multi-looking Over-sampling
Unwrapping
Figure 45. Decomposition Level 2. The under-sampling is performed at each step with a multi-looking 3X3.
37
Figure 46. Wrapped interferogram with a lot of residual topography fringes due to the low resolution of the
reference DEM (SRTM) respect to the sensor used (TSX). Such fast fringes can cause problems to the
unwrapping tool.
Figure 47. A Delaunay MCF with Decomposition level 1 has been used for the unwrapping. Many erroneous
macroscopic phase jumps appear.
38
Figure 48. A Delaunay MCF with Decomposition level 2 has been used for the unwrapping.. The erroneous,
macroscopic phase jumps have in this case disappeared.
Pay attention when increasing the Decomposition level number. Macroscopically it helps a lot (and
significantly speeds up the software ), but it can create localized discontinuities where the fringes to be
unwrapped are too fast. The higher is the decomposition the higher the probability to have aliasing
problems. Typically one decomposition level should be used during this first unwrapping. A second SBAS
unwrapping (run during the First Inversion Step tool) operates on simplified flattened - filtered
interferograms, where the first displacement rate and residual topography have been removed. In this case
it will be safer and feasible to increase the DCL to 2.
Figure 49. Enlargement of the original (on the left) and unwrapped phase (on the right), obtained with
Decomposition level 2. it can be seen how localized phase discontinuities appears where the fringes are too
fast in the original interferogram.
It is important to say that the unwrapping can have difficulties in dense urban areas with data obtained from
high spatial resolution sensor (e.g. TSX, COSMO-Skymed ). The skyscrapers are typically in layover and the
phase decreases from near to far range, e.g. differently from the surrounding flattened phase of the
streets. If there are many skyscrapers, it can happen that the unwrapping algorithm confuses them with a
strong ramp distributed on the entire frame (this effect varies depending on the skyscrapers area percentage
respect to the entire frame pixels). This phase ramp does not corresponds to the reality, and it should be
removed, and the skyscrapers phase is lost. In these areas the usage of the PSI (Persistent Scatterers)
39
technique, that do not require any spatial unwrapping, is recommended (assuming that enough, more than
20, acquisitions are available) and can provide more reliable results.
After an eventual additional step of unwrapping step with adapted parameters, a further optional screening
of the new unwrapped files is recommended (SI_upha_list_meta in
_SBAS_processing/interferogram_stacking folder), and the bad and useless interferograms shall be
discarded by exploiting the tool, before proceeding with the following steps.
Tip Leave enough redundancy for each acquisition.
To establish which pair should be discarded it can be helpful to adopt the rainbow colour table from ENVI
during the visualization, and for doubt cases, use the arbitrary Profile (transpect) of ENVI classic.
From ASAR and PALSAR processing it has been decided to discard the following unwrapped interferograms
before proceeding with the other steps of SBAS:
ID master ID slave
18 14
18 15
17 9
17 13
21 26
23 31 ID master ID slave
25 15 11 7
19 5 7 1
3 14 7 2
12 2
12 5
12 16
27 31
28 29
31 33
Table 2. On the left: discarded pair list from ASAR processing. On the right: discarded pair list from PALSAR
processing.
If the user is working in incremental mode, it is necessary to start running this step again to process the
added acquisitions and the new pairs connections.
40
Refinement and Re-Flattening
This step is executed to estimate and to remove the remaining phase constants and phase ramps from the
unwrapped phase stack. The Re-Flattened stack will be the input to the following First Inversion Step tool.
Figure 50. Refinement and Re-Flattening tool for ASAR processing.
Figure 51. Default Panel, Flattening setting. Tip choose the Residual Phase as refinement method.
Figure 52. Refinement and Re-Flattening tool for PALSAR processing.
41
First of all the Ground Control Points for the refinement can be selected either in slant geometry (range and
azimuth) or in geocoded geometry (x,y,h, where the h could be automatically retrieved from the input DEM
from the tool GCP generation), but not in both geometries. This is different from the geometric GCP used to
correct the slant range distance and the azimuth start time during the basic geocoding or the interferogram
flattening (used for old sensor with largely inaccurate orbits like ERS-1 and ERS-2).
The GCPs location should respect some general criteria. With the SBAS, a stack of unwrapped phase images
shall be re-flattened, so these criteria should be valid for most of the interferograms contained in the stack.
It is hence suggested to select a representative image during the screening of the unwrapped phase
described in the previous step; this image shall help to find the best GCPs location for most of the input
unwrapped phase images.
Typically the GCPs are chosen in slant range. If the GCP are used for more adjacent tracks as anchor points,
they should be taken at their best in geocoded geometry, with a good coverage of the area where the
adjacent tracks overlap. The software is hence able to internally perform a backward geocoding on the slant
range geometry used during the refinement.
It shall be recalled that all the SBAS output measurements are relative to the selected GCPs (interferometry
is in principle a relative measure). For this reason, SARscape is annotating the location of the (input)
reference GCPs and generating a corresponding output shape file to document the reference location(s) of
the final output results.
The most important criteria to select the GCP points location on the unwrapped phase files:
There should be no residual topography fringes

There should be no displacement fringes, hence remain quite far from the displacement area, if
known. The displacement rate of the selected GCPs is considered to be 0, unless a known
displacement rate is provided in input, as for example as resulting from external measurements
There should be no phase jumps. If a point is located inside an isolated phase island, with poorly
unwrapped value, it might be considered as part of a phase ramp and resulting in an overall wrong
correction.
42
Figure 53. Wrapped interferogram (on the left) and unwrapped interferogram with refinement GCP points
location (on the right), both containing a displacement pattern and an orbit phase ramp. The points have
been chosen as far as possible from the displacement pattern. This is another reason to let us consider an
Area of Interest quite bigger than the real interested one.
Figure 54. Wrapped (on the left) and unwrapped (on the right) interferogram after the refinement and re-
flattening. The phase ramp has disappeared and the displacement pattern fully remains.
43
Figure 55. Interferogram with orbital phase ramp and atmospheric phase trends. On the left: original
filtered / flattened interferogram. On the right: unwrapped interferogram with location of the GCPs exploited
during the orbital refinement overlaid as red crosses. Note that the sparsity of the unwpapped pixels is due
to the fact that this interferogram has been unwrapped in 3D, and hence only the pixels that show reliable
coherence in the whole stack are unwrapped in output.
44
Figure 56. Result of the orbital refinement and re-flattening step, by using the points shown in the previous
Figure. The orbital phase ramp has disappeared in both the wrapped (on the left) and the unwrapped (on
the right) interferogram. Only the contribution of the atmospheric artefacts remains, which will be removed
in the following processing steps.
In the SBAS it is hard to retrieve the perfect set of points that can work in the same way for all the pairs,
having different coverage due to the different coherence values. For this reason it is suggested to introduce
many points (at least 20-30). In this way the probability is higher that almost all the interferograms are quite
well flattened. In any case the SBAS inversion is robust enough (always depending on the redundancy of the
connection graph), and it should not be affected so much by small, non-systematic ramps and or phase
constant. The goal of the Refinement and Re-Flattening tool is to adjust the input stack at its best for the
inversion. From the SARscape Flattening Default Values it is possible to choose between two refinement
methods: Orbital refinement and Residual Phase refinement. The first method is more accurate since it tries
to modify the slave orbit parameters respecting a physical model of the orbit in order to remove the phase
ramp. The Residual Phase method removes directly an estimated a phase ramp estimated on the unwrapped
phase file. This second method is less rigorous but more robust. In general it is suggested to use this
second mode, since it can give on average more reliable and stable results when applied to a stack of
images.
45
Regarding the training data sets, we decided to use a common set of GCPs for both the processings. It is in
effect impossible to set exactly the same GCPs locations, in slant range geometry, for both stacks. To make
a final consistent comparison between the results the anchor points should be the same for both processing,
and the only choice is to retrieve them in ground geometry and leave to the software the automatic back
propagation from ground to the correspondent slant range location.
Tip To generate the GCP in ground range geometry: choose two representative unwrapped
interferograms, one per stack, geocode them by using the Geocoding tool. These will be the
references to retrieve the GCPs location. For these trainings the whole frame processing velocity
result has also been taken into account to better identify the stable areas. By working with such a
small sub-sample (to respect the displacement pattern dimension) is hard to retrieve visually stable
areas from the interferograms. In this case they can be use some GCPs with the precise location
measurement (as for example from GPS) instead of stable points. SARscape is able to ingest this
kind of reference measures, and take into account the GPS station movement (position temporal
series or position and velocity).
After the Interferometric Workflow step, the IS_upha_list_meta can be opened for the screening. The meta
file is located in the _SBAS_processing\interferogram_stacking folder, whereas the raster files are located in
the _SBAS_processing\work\work_interferogram_stacking folder.
Figure 57. Two representative unwrapped interferograms with a phase ramp caused by orbit inaccuracy.
On the left: IS_20090511_m_24_20081222_s_22_del_upha from ASAR processing. On the right:
IS_20090603_m_13_20100421_s_18_upha from PALSAR processing.
46
Figure 58. Geocoding tool from Basic menu of SARscape. By using the reference DEM, the two unwrapped
interferograms are geocoded with the same grid size (25 m).
Figure 59. Resulting geocoded unwrapped interferograms. On the left:

IS_20090511_m_24_20081222_s_22_del_upha_geo from ASAR processing. On the right:
IS_20090603_m_13_20100421_s_18_upha_geo from PALSAR processing.
The two reference images are now ready to be used by the SARscape Generate Ground Control Points tool
47
Figure 60. Generate Ground Control Points tool from General Tools menu of SARscape. Set as input one of
the geocoded unwrapped interferogram, as DEM file the reference DEM and the other geocoded unwrapped
interferograms could be set as Reference File (for visualization purposes). Set a traceable Output XML file
name as for example in the Common_refinement folder.
Click on ENVI Symbol Annotation button to activate the GCP selection
Figure 61. Points location used for the common ASAR processing and for PALSAR processing Refinement
and Re-Flattening step. The selected 41 points (provided with the training data set) are situated in areas
without displacement (known a priori from the whole frame analysis). They are as spread as possible to
better remove the phase ramps.
48
Once the Refinement and Re-Flattening step has been performed it is possible to analyze the re-flattened
unwrapped interferograms by opening the upha meta file (IS_reflat_upha_list_meta) in the
_SBAS_processing\interferogram_stacking folder.
Figure 62. The previous unwrapped interferograms after the Refinement and Re-Flattening step. On the
left: IS_20090511_m_24_20081222_s_22_reflat_del_upha from ASAR processing. On the right:
IS_20090603_m_13_20100421_s_18_reflat_upha from PALSAR processing. The remaining phase pattern
are caused by the displacement occurs between the two acquisition and by atmospheric changes.
If the user is working in incremental mode, it is necessary to run this step again to process the added
acquisitions and the new pairs connections.
49
Inversion First Step
This step implements the SBAS inversion kernel that retrieving the first estimate of the displacement rate
and of the residual topography. Moreover, a second unwrapping is done within this stage on the input
interferograms to refine and improve the input stack in view of the next step. The process can be stopped
before the second unwrapping to leave the user the opportunity to the user to analyse the first significant
results. They can be found in the inversion folder under the output root path.
Figure 63. Inversion First Step tool for ASAR processing.
Figure 64. Inversion First Step tool for PALSAR processing.
Here one out of three main different fitting models can be chosen: linear, quadratic and cubic. The most
robust inversion model is with the linear model; the other models need high connection graph redundancy
and high coherent interferograms to provide reliable results.
The No Displacement Model is a custom method, where the SBAS is used as a high accurate DEM generator.
By flagging this particular kind of model no displacement are considered and no velocity and time series will
be generated.
Tip Typically, without any a priori knowledge on the displacement behaviour, the best choice is to
choose the linear model.
In any case, the SBAS can retrieve, in its second inversion, any kind of displacement time series, without
following the model set here.
The generic formula used in the system equation, for the linear model, is the following:
Phase = (Hres*K1) + (V*T1*4/)
50
where Phase is the input stack of unwrapped interferograms phase measures, Hres is the residual
topographic height to be estimated (SI_height_frst_est), K1 is the proportionality between baseline and
residual topography, approximated as linear dependency and estimated on a pixel-by-pixel in a numeric
way, as accurate as the input DEM is closer to the real topography. V represents the average displacement
rate to be estimated (SI_vel_frst_est), T the time between the two acquisitions of the pair under analysis,
the sensor wavelength.
It must be noted that the displacement rate sensitivity depends on the system wavelength. This means that
sensors with longer wavelength (e.g. ALOS PALSAR) will have a sensitivity smaller than the sensors one with
shorter wavelength (e.g. TSX, CSK). On the other hands, longer wavelengths will have higher temporal
coherence and hence denser spatial coverage.
Tip Whenever the estimated residual topography is affected by ramps, or atmospheric pattern or other
distortion the Wavelet functionality can be used. A wrong residual topography estimation will
compromise the final SBAS geocoding, causing horizontal shifts in the results. The Wavelet Number
of Levels, which refers to the power of 2 base, determines what is kept of the residual topography
estimated. As an example considering input data with a pixel spacing of 25 m, a "Number of Levels"
of 1 means that the information coarser than 50 m is removed and the information finer than 50 m
is preserved; a "Number of Levels" of 2 means that the information coarser than 100 m is removed
and the information finer than 100 m is preserved; a "Number of Levels" of 3 means that the
information coarser than 200 m is removed and the information finer than 200 m is preserved. It is
suggested to set this value as a function of the reference DEM (which is used for the interferogram
flattening) resolution; as an example, if we process SAR data with 20 m resolution with an SRTM
reference DEM (90 m resolution), we'll enter a number of levels of 3 (160m) or more. Higher the
levels, lower (in terms of spatial frequency) will be the removed part.
Figure 65. On the left the statistic of the residual topography estimated in the PALSAR processing. On the
right the same residual topography with a Wavelet Number of Levels equal to 4. The average residual
topography become almost 0 and the standard deviation reduced. A Wavelet Number of Levels higher than
0 should be applied only in case of strong distortion.
51
In the following images obtained from PALSAR and ASAR processing, the ENVI linear scale for stretching
visualization (custom stretching) and the rainbow Look Up Table have been adopted.
velocity from -17mm/y (dark blue) to +6mm/y (red)
height from -9m (dark blue) to +3m (red).
Figure 66. On the left: the first velocity (SI_vel_frst_est) estimate by the First Inversion tool on the ASAR
data. On the right: the corresponding residual topography (SI_height_frst_est). The rainbow LUT of ENVI
has been used here. The strong subsidence (dark violet - black) and the uplift (red) can be noted in the first
velocity estimation. The next step of SBAS inversion will provide a more refined estimation of the velocity. At
this stage the displacement location and its spatial coverage can be already retrieved.
52
Figure 67. On the left: the first velocity (SI_vel_frst_est) estimate by the First Inversion tool on the PALSAR
data. On the right: the corresponding residual topography (SI_height_frst_est). The rainbow LUT of ENVI
has been used here. The strong subsidence (dark violet - black) and the uplift (red) can be noted in the first
velocity estimation. The next step of SBAS inversion will provide a more refined estimation of the velocity
but already at this stage the displacement location and its spatial coverage can be retrieved.
Figure 68. On the left: SI_vel_frst_est (the first estimation of the displacement rate). On the right:
SI_height_frst_est (the first estimation of the residual topography). TerraSAR-X stack, in an urban area.
When the model selected in the inversion is quadratic or cubic, not only the velocity term will be estimated
but also higher degree terms will be obtained, according to:
Quadratic model: V*T + (1/2)*A*T2

Cubic model: V*T + (1/2)*A*T2 + (1/6)*dA*T3
Where A is the acceleration and dA is the acceleration variation.
Pay attention to the fact that the retrieved velocities, from higher order models (quadratic or cubic), are
different with respect to the velocity obtained from the linear model. The difference comes from the other
additive terms of the model (as the acceleration and the acceleration variation) that will be taken into
account during the comparison. In any case, when an higher degree model is chosen, an average velocity
corresponding to the velocity estimated from the linear model will also be generated. The velocity will be
used to assign the colours of the final shape and the kml files (Raster to Shape Conversion tool).
53
The use of the linear model is recommended for a first SBAS trial. After the execution of the Second
Inversion Step tool, when the displacement time series can be analysed, if a strong quadratic or cubic
behaviour can be identified, it is still possible to return to this step and perform it again with the most
appropriate (higher order) model.
The estimation of the results for this step takes into account the coherence thresholds on the input stack of
unwrapped phase. Only the pixels above threshold that covering a fully connected graph will be solved
during the inversion. If the Allow Disconnected Blocks flag is checked (within this tool or previously, in the
Generate Connection Graph tool), the resulting displacement rate map will have a bigger coverage, since the
results are estimated also for those pixels that do not respect the full connection criteria (and for which the
missing measures are temporally interpolated). If this flag is checked, the reliability of the results will not be
the same everywhere in the output image.
Remember that the Product coherence threshold has no meaning if it is lower than the previous unwrapping
coherence threshold (Interferometric Workflow tool), since it is applied to the unwrapped phases, in input to
the inversion SBAS kernel, that are already masked with the previous threshold.
The second unwrapping is performed on the wrapped interferograms compensated for the estimated
displacement rate and residual topography. In these interferograms there should be fewer fringes, so that
the user can try to execute the unwrapping process with a Decomposition level 2. At the end of the second
unwrapping, the software automatically adds back again what has been removed from the wrapped
interferograms. This new stack is ready to be automatically ingested from the Second Inversion Step tool.
54
First
displacement
stack
Temporary
Subtract SBAS
wrapped stack
Second
Inversion
Residual
topography
estimation Unwrap
Re-flattening
SBAS First
Inversion
Temporary
unwrapped
Second
stack
Unwrapped
stack
First velocity
estimation Add
Unwrapped
Wrapped stack
stack
Re-flattening
First Wrapped First

stack Unwrapped
stack
Figure 69. SBAS second unwrapping description. The output stack will contain the displacement rate
component. The residual topography is removed from the stack but not added back: the second inversion
will be focused only on the displacement component.
55
Figure 70. On the left the wrapped interferogram after the Interferometric Workflow step
(IS_20090511_m_24_20100531_s_31_fint) from the ASAR processing. On the right the same wrapped
interferogram (SI_20090511_m_24_20100531_s_31_fint) after the low pass component removal (first
residual topography and first velocity estimation)
Figure 71. On the left the unwrapped interferogram after the Interferometric Workflow step
(IS_20090511_m_24_20100531_s_31_del_upha) from the ASAR processing. On the right the same
unwrapped interferogram ( SI_20090511_m_24_20100531_s_31_less_LP_del_upha ) after the low pass
component removal. The same visualization stretch has been used. The remaining phase pattern can derive
from atmospheric artefacts, or from residual displacement that cannot be modelled as linear
56
Figure 72. On the left the wrapped interferogram after the Interferometric Workflow step
(IS_20080716_m_8_20090903_s_15_fint) from the PALSAR processing. On the right the same wrapped
interferogram (SI_20080716_m_8_20090903_s_15_fint) after the low pass component removal (first
residual topography and first velocity estimation).
Figure 73. On the left the unwrapped interferogram after the Interferometric Workflow step
(IS_20080716_m_8_20090903_s_15_upha) from the PALSAR processing. On the right the same unwrapped
interferogram (SI_20080716_m_8_20090903_s_15_less_LP_upha ) after the low pass component removal.
The same visualization stretch has been used. The remaining phase pattern can derive from atmospheric
artefacts, or from residual displacement that cannot be modelled as linear.
After the First Inversion step, it is suggested to perform a screening of the new unwrapped files (a new
meta is generated in the inversion folder: SI_upha_list_meta), and to discard the bad and useless
interferograms by using the Edit Connection Graph tool before proceeding to the following steps.
57
Tip: Leave enough redundancy for each acquisition.
To establish which pair should be discarded it can be helpful to adopt the rainbow colour table from ENVI
during the visualization, and for doubt cases, use the arbitrary Profile (Transpect) of ENVI classic.
Before proceeding with the other steps of SBAS, the following unwrapped interferograms were discarded
from ASAR and PALSAR processings:
ID master ID slave
18 21
23 10
24 12
24 13
ID master ID slave
24 15
11 19
8 19
11 20
3 0
3 9
3 13
4 11
16 22
Table 3. On the left: discarded pair list from ASAR processing. On the right: discarded pair list from PALSAR
processing.
The following picture show the Connection Graph changes after two Edit Connection Graph steps.
Figure 74. Plots generated by the Connection Graph Generation tool ASAR processing: Time versus Relative
Position. Before (on the left), and after the editing (on the right) using the SBAS Plot Viewer tool.
58
Figure 75. Plots generated by the Connection Graph Generation tool PALSAR processing: Time versus
Relative Position. Before (on the left), and after the editing (on the right) using the SBAS Plot Viewer tool.
If the user is working in incremental mode, it is necessary to execute this step again to obtain the new finals
results.
59
Inversion Second Step
This step implements the SBAS inversion kernel to retrieve the displacement time series.
After the retrieval of the displacement time series first estimation (_disp_first), a custom atmospheric
filtering is performed on these preliminary results in order to recover the final and cleaned displacement time
series.
Figure 76. Inversion Second Step tool for ASAR processing.
Figure 77. Inversion Second Step tool for PALSAR processing.
The Displacement GCPs file is the refinement and re-flattening GCPs file used to re-flat the input unwrapped
phase stack, and to anchor the final displacement time series. The same GCPs used in the Refinement and
Re-Flattening tool might be chosen. In case no phase ramps are left, a single GCP (one point) can be chosen
to remove just a residual phase constant. All the final results will be referred to these GCPs and they could
be called the anchor point(s). For this step it is recommended to set the Residual Phase Poly degree to 1 in
the SARscape Flattening Default values. The software will remove just a phase constant even though the
user introduce more points (the average of the phase values measured in the points location will be
removed).
The SI_vel_frst_est, or one representative unwrapped phase generated by the Inversion First Step tool can
be used to select this GCP as reference.
For the training processing on ASAR and PALSAR it has been decided to use the same GCP used for the
Refinement and Re-Flattening step.
The estimation of the results for this step takes into account a coherence threshold on the input stack of the
unwrapped phase. Only the pixels which are over threshold in most of the stack (enough to permit a fully
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connected graph) will be solved by the inversion. When the Interpol Disconnected Blocks flag is active (here
or the previous Allow Disconnected Blocks flag in the Generate Connection Graph tool) the results are
estimated also for those pixels that do not respect the fully connected criteria (by temporally interpolating
the missing measures). The resulting displacement time series and displacement rate map will have a bigger
spatial coverage. If this flag is checked, the reliability of the result will be not the same everywhere.
Remember that the Product coherence threshold has no meaning if it is lower than the previous unwrapping
coherence threshold (Inversion Fist Step tool), since it is applied to the unwrapped phases in input to the
inversion SBAS kernel, that are already masked by the previous threshold.
velocity from -17 mm/y (dark blue) to +6mm/y (red)
displacement from -60mm (dark blue) to +8mm (red).
Figure 78. Displacement maps from ASAR processing, before (on the left) and after (on the right) the
atmospheric artifacts filtering. The visualized displacement maps are the last of the stack
(SI_20100809_33_disp_frst_est and SI_20100809_33_disp) and they represent the cumulative measure to
respect the first stack acquisition date (2006-09-04).
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Figure 79. Displacement maps from PALSAR processing, before (on the left) and after (on the right) the
atmospheric artefacts filtering. The visualized displacement maps are the last of the stack
(SI_20101022_22_disp_frst_est and SI_20101022_22_disp) and they represent the cumulative measure to
respect the first stack acquisition date (2006-08-26).
It is possible to analyse with SARscape the time series of the displacements estimated by the SBAS
inversion. The tool can be found in the General Tools, Time series Analyzer, Raster . The meta file containing
the desired series shall be loaded to perform this operation; one of the layers shall be opened in an ENVI
display, and the user can select the ENVI rainbow colour table to better stretch the visualization: the Raster
analyser can finally be used. This tool permits to select a point, or a square window or a Region of interest
to be plotted.
Two meta files, under the _SBAS_processing\inversion folder, can be opened in two different displays to
compare two time series (e.g. SI_disp_frst_est_meta and SI_disp_meta). After linking these displays, two
instances of the SARscape time series analyser tool must be opened. The plot originating from the time
series can be copied (cntrl+c + cntrl+v) from one IDL iPlot to another.
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Figure 80. Comparison between the first velocity estimation retrieved in the First Inversion step
(vel_frst_est) and the final velocity retrieved from the Second Inversion step (vel), for ASAR processing.
Figure 81. Comparison between the first velocity estimation retrieved in the First Inversion step
(vel_frst_est) and the final velocity retrieved from the Second Inversion step (vel), for PALSAR processing.
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Figure 82. Time Series Analyzer tool (on the left) and the corresponding plot, for ASAR processing (uplift),
of the time series (on the right) before (in yellow) and after (in green) the atmosphere cleaning.
Figure 83. Time Series Analyzer tool (on the left) and the corresponding plot, for PALSASAR processing
(subsidence), of the time series (on the right) before (in yellow) and after (in green) the atmosphere
cleaning.
As it is shown in the previous pictures, the purpose of the atmospheric filter is to smooth the displacement
temporal signature respecting some physical properties of the atmosphere. This filter is implemented with a
Low pass spatial filter, combined with a High temporal pass filter, on the first retrieved displacements. The
assumption is that the atmosphere has a large spatial correlation (e.g. 1.2km as default) and a low temporal
correlation (typically one year as default). In order to increase the smoothing effect of the atmosphere filter,
these parameters must be reduced, but the risk, while doing so, of filtering out also real displacement
patterns is high. Attention is to be paid to large spatial displacements with high temporal de-correlation (as
for example an earthquake) which can be confused for atmospheric patterns and consequently be removed.
For this reason it is advisable to always have a look on both time series before and after the atmosphere
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filter. Moreover, this filter depends on the model chosen in the previous First Inversion Step tool. If, for
instance, the chosen model is quadratic, the cleaned and smoothed displacement time series will somehow
tend to follow some quadratic trend.
In any case, independently from the chosen model, SBAS is able to retrieve any kind of displacement trend
(mostly in the _disp_frst_est). The next picture shows an example of highly non-linear trend.
Figure 84. Example of highly non-linear subsidence found by the SBAS. This kind temporal series is better
visualized with the _disp_frst_est. The atmospheric filter will probably reduce too much the entire excursion,
and the final displacement will be too smoothed.
At the end of this step, the final velocity SI_vel will also be estimated, according to the model chosen in the
Inversion First Step tool, as a polynomial fit of the cleaned displacement temporal series. Here also the Chi
Square value of the model fitted is generated. The Chi Square could be a good parameter to quantify how
well the model chosen match with the measured displacement values. The selected model in this training
example is the linear one, so all the points with a strong non linearity should be marked by the Chi Square
layer.
If the user is working in incremental mode, it is necessary to run this step again to obtain the new finals
results.
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Geocoding
This step geocodes all the results obtained by the First Inversion Step tool and by the Second Inversion Step
tool. The geocoded files will be written in the geocoded folder inside the inversion folder.
Figure 85. Geocoding tool for ASAR processing.
Figure 86. Geocoding tool for PALSAR processing.
The displacements and the velocities can be re-projected onto a custom direction (user-defined, vertical or
along the maximum slope direction, but in this case the user needs a very accurate DEM). The real
displacement direction must be known with high precision in order to obtain a reliable re-projection. If it is
not known, it is better to leave the results in the original satellite Line Of Sight annotation; the software also
generates the _ILOS (inclination angle of Line Of Sight) and _ALOS (azimuth angle of Line Of Sight) files,
documenting for each output pixel the original measurement geometry.
Tip The use of a grid size a bit larger than the original slant range spatial resolution (taking into account
the multi-looking factor) allows to avoid the use of a spatial interpolator on the final results. Every
interpolation can add some artefacts.
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ASAR data have been processed with an almost square pixel of about 20 meters. PALSAR data have been
processed with an almost square pixel of about 15 meters. It has been decided to geocode both results
stacks with a pixel resolution of 25 meters. This will give the opportunity to perform an exhaustive
comparison.
The Geocoding tool adopts two constrain: the Velocity Precision Threshold and the Height Precision
Threshold (upper thresholds, only points with precision smaller than them will be geocoded). Both of these
layers are estimated in the Second Inversion step and are related to the spatial coherence stack. In order to
estimate some good thresholds, in terms of coverage and precision, a good way to work to analyze both
rasters (contained in _SBAS_processing\inversion\slant_range folder) with the ENVI statistic tool.
Figure 87. On the left: velocity precision (SI_precision_vel). On the right: height precision
(SI_precision_height). From ASAR processing.
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Figure 88. ENVI histogram statistic. On the left: velocity precision, on the right: height precision. From
ASAR processing.
Figure 89. On the left: velocity precision (SI_precision_vel). On the right: height precision
(SI_precision_height). From PALSAR processing.
Figure 90. ENVI histogram statistic. On the left: velocity precision, on the right: height precision. From
PALSAR processing.
It has been decided to use:
for ASAR processing, Velocity Precision Threshold = 2.0mm/y; Height Precision Threshold = 2.0m
for PALSAR processing, Velocity Precision Threshold = 7.0mm/y; Height Precision Threshold =3.0m.
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As expected, the C band has lower spatial coherence, due to its less penetration with respect to the L band,
but on equal terms of coherence thresholds, the precision is much better. The better precision goes to the
detriment of the coverage.
Figure 91. The final precision of the results depends on the coherence and on the system wavelength. For
example: with a coherence of 0.2 in C band, a coherence of about 0.6 is needed in L band to obtain the
same precision.
The displacement in this area should be mostly in vertical direction (subsidence and uplift caused from gas
extraction and water injection). By flagging the Vertical Direction component, the software will provide not
only the LOS (Line of Sight) direction displacements and displacement rate (velocity) as measured by the
sensor configuration, but also its propagation along the vertical direction.
Tip: if the real displacement direction is not accurately known, it is important to note that the
displacement propagated along a wrong direction will have a wrong magnitude. The most correct
measurements are always along the LOS, as measured by the sensor configuration. The user must
take this into account before providing the SBAS displacement results.
velocity from -17mm/y (dark blue) to +6mm/y (red)
In the following images we can see the perfect match in terms of distributions and magnitude of the
geocoded velocity estimated from ASAR and PALSAR processing.
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Figure 92. Comparison between the final geocoded velocity (SI_vel_geo) obtained from ASAR (on the left)
and from PALSAR processing (on the right).
Regarding the LOS (Line of Sight) direction, the software provide the ALOS (Azimuth LOS) and ILOS
(inclination LOS) angles for each pixel. ALOS: positive angles are measured clockwise from the North;
negative angles are measured counterclockwise from the North. ILOS: the angle is measured between the
LOS and the vertical on the ellipsoid (flat earth).
Figure 93. Average displacement rate estimated with the SBAS module by using L-band ALOS PALSAR (on
the left) and C-band ASAR ENVISAT (on the right) data, over the whole frame. We can see how the spatial
coverage obtained with ALOS data is denser, since the stack temporal correlation is generally higher. On the
other hand, the precision of the single valid measures is better when measured with ASAR data.
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Figure 94. Average displacement rates estimated in the same areas with SBAS using L-band ALOS PALSAR
(above) and C-band ENVISAT ASAR (below) data. These are some extract from the whole frame. It is
clearly visible the uplift (on the left) due to too much water injection after natural gas extraction.
Once the Geocoding step has been performed it can be possible to make comparison between temporal
series obtained from different stack in the same point location. Actually it can be a good method to validate
the result of the SBAS processing. It is important to note that the temporal series start with 0 on the first
stack acquisition date, so, if the first acquisition date differs, there could be an offset between them.
In this case study, ASAR and PALSAR data start from almost the same acquisition date.
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Figure 95. Comparison between the geocoded temporal series from ASAR processing (green) and PALSAR
processing (yellow). The corresponding meta file is: SI_geo_disp_meta in the _SBAS_processing\inversion
folder. The temporal series have been measured in the same geocoded location for subsidence (on the left)
and for uplift (on the right).
The following pictures show some example of the Chi Square layer usage. The selected model in this training
example is the linear one, so all the points with a strong non linearity should therefore be marked with high
values in the Chi Square layer.
Figure 96. On the left: the geocoded velocity SI_vel_geo from ASAR processing. On the right: the Chi
Square obtained during the final fitting of the velocity. There are two clear patterns of high Chi Square
values that identify the strong non linearity of the displacements on such locations. The other isolated points
with strong non linearity probably come from the noisy temporal series.
The Chi Square analysis can drive the user to identify those areas with a different behavior, not only in
terms of strong velocities, but also in terms of motion types. The user could analyze the time series per each
covered point. However, this feature, together with other new features under development, could help a lot.
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Figure 97. Two examples from the ASAR processing time series. Both examples show close points with
similar velocity magnitude, but with very different Chi Square values. The red lines correspond to time series
with stronger Chi Square. These time series have been measured one per each red spot (in the Chi Square
layer) of the previous figure.
If the user is working in incremental mode, it is mandatory to run this step again in order to obtain the new
final results.
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Raster to Shape Conversion
This optional step allows to convert the SBAS inversion geocoded raster results into a vector shapefile
(suitable for instance and analysis within ArcGIS) and kml format (suitable for instance for visualization
within Google Earth).
Figure 98. Raster to Shape Conversion tool for ASAR processing.
Figure 99. Raster to Shape Conversion tool for PALSAR processing.
The conversion will be applied only to the pixels fulfilling the selected constrains on geocoded precision and
temporal coherence. The temporal coherence also indicates how well the model chosen in the Inversion First
Step tool describes the displacement temporal series. In this case the model chosen is the linear one. So
when we speak about high temporal coherence, it means strong linearity of the temporal series. If the user
wants to convert all the valid pixels retrieved in the results of the Inversion Second Step tool, these
constrains must be enlarged by setting the temporal coherence to 0.0 and both precision types to very large
values.
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A good way to work is to analyze all the rasters (contained in _SBAS_processing\inversion\geocoded folder)
corresponding to the cited thresholds. The ENVI statistic tool can be used to estimate some good
thresholds, in terms of coverage, precision and linearity. For the height and the velocity precision, the same
thresholds used in the Geocoding step can be chosen.
Figure 100. On the left: geocoded temporal coherence (SI_cc_geo). The geocoded coherence is not
spatially interpoled. The small voids are caused by the pixel resolution of ASAR comparable with the
geocoding grid size. On the right: ENVI histogram statistic. From ASAR processing.
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Figure 101. On the left: geocoded temporal coherence ( SI_cc_geo). On the right: ENVI histogram statistic.
From PALSAR processing.
It has been decided to use:
for ASAR processing, Velocity Precision Threshold = 2.0mm/y; Height Precision Threshold = 2.0m;
Coherence Threshold = 0.2
for PALSAR processing, Velocity Precision Threshold = 7.0mm/y; Height Precision Threshold =3.0m;
Coherence Threshold = 0.4.
The generated shape and kml files could be quite big and it could not be possible to open them with other
software. For this reason, it is possible to define in this tool the maximum number of points in the shape and
kml files. When the number of points exceeds these parameters, the generated vectors files are split into
multiple files.
Tip: The maximum number of points for the kml file is about 25000. If it is higher there could be a crash
in Google Earth during the visualization. This number is not so restricted for a shape file and
depends on the machine available graphic card memory. It can be easily increased to 1000000 in
order to have a unique shape file containing the whole result.
A vector file defining a region of interest can be provided as an input of this tool: only the pixels belonging
to this region will be converted. The results can be found in the _SBAS_processing\vector\coherence_thr_
folder generated in the output SBAS root folder. Depending on the adopted temporal coherence threshold
the sub-folder will be renamed differently.
The shape file (or the shapes file if the result has been split, or if the user decided to generate also the
projected version) contains the main information as the model parameter, the coherence, the entire time
series (if selected), etc., for each point.
Note that the converted shape file will contain in its fields the whole displacement time series that, as for the
PS (Persistent Scatteres) can be visualised with the Time Series Analyser -> Vector tool, corresponding to
the Time Series Analyser -> Raster tool used to analyse the results of the Inversion Second Step tool. The
shape file must be open via ENVI first.
Tip: The analysis of the results (displacement rate, residual topography, time series, etc.) is much faster
by using the Raster Time Series Analyzer. For this reason the Raster to Shape Conversion tool is
optional.
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Figure 102. On the left: the geocoded time average intensity image ( mean_pwr_geo), with the shape file
projected along the vertical direction (out_20_vector_0_VD.shp), containing all the most relevant
information of the SBAS results, from ASAR processing. The visualized colour layer is the vertical velocity
field. On the right: the panel opened from the Vector Time Series Analyzer, with the adopted colour scale.
Figure 103. On the left: the geocoded time average intensity image ( mean_pwr_geo), with the shape file
projected along the vertical direction (out_40_vector_0_VD.shp), containing all the most relevant
information of the SBAS results, from PALSAR processing. The visualized colour layer is the vertical velocity
field. On the right: the panel opened from the Vector Time Series Analyzer, with the colour scale adopted.
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Figure 104. KML vector file (out_40_vector_5_VD.kml) generated by the Raster to Shape Conversion tool
from PALSAR processing and displayed within GoogleEarth.
Figure 105. Shape file generated by the Raster to Shape Conversion tool visualised within ArcGIS, and the
corresponding time series visualised with SARscapes Time Series Analyser -> Vector tool. On top: PSI
Analysis, in the wider area, of Station Szent Gellrt tr based on 43 TerraSAR-X satellite data sets. The
subsidence area disappears because of the strong non linearity. In the middle: Focused SBAS Analysis in the
area of Station Szent Gellrt tr based on just 8 TerraSAR-X satellite data sets. The coverage is much better
than the one obtained with the PSI technique. On the botton: Sample time series of surface displacements
showing highly non-linear displacements induced by temporarily restricted time of construction. Copyright
from Infoterra GmbH.
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Figure 106. Visualisation of a raster velocity map within Google Earth.
Figure 107. KML vector file generated by the Raster to Shape Conversion tool and displayed within
GoogleEarth.
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Figure 108. 3D visualization of another kml file generated by the Raster to Shape Conversion tool.
If the user is working in incremental mode, it is necessary to re-execute this step again to obtain the new
finals results.
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Edit Connection Graph
This tool is intended to remove or add connections or acquisitions from the Connection Graph defined by the
Connection Graph Generation tool.
Figure 109. Edit Connection Graph tool used to remove the bad interferograms (considered as pairs of
acquisitions). The removed interferograms are in this case: _20080630_m_17_20070924_s_9_ and
_20080630_m_17_20080211_s_13_ in ASAR processing.
This tool can be used whenever the user decides to remove one acquisition, or more frequently some pairs
that have been considered incorrectly unwrapped (e.g. after the Interferometric Workflow tool or after the
Inversion second Step tool). This editing is finalized to obtain a better result from the SBAS inversions,
starting from less but more coherent input unwrapped interferograms.
To select the pairs-connections to be removed, just select the master and one or more slaves, and click on
the Remove pair button. The software will check if the operation can be performed, depending on the graph
connectivity (Allow disconnected Blocks option activated or not) and on the Super Master requirements (the
Super Master cannot be removed and must have at least one connection). It is up to the user to decide
which method is easier in order to identify the connections: by looking at the acquisition dates of master and
slave, or at their ID (xx_m_ID__s_ID_). This tool should be used after the unwrapped phase image stack
screening.
The actual editing step and the number of added and discarded acquisitions are reported in the panel. An
acquisition can be discarded because explicitly removed or because all its connections have been removed.
Whenever the user adds a connection or adds an image (or a list of images) the SBAS incremental mode is
activated, and it is mandatory to execute again all the steps starting from the Area of Interest Definition tool
(if performed). In this case all the already processed pairs will be left untouched and only the new pairs will
be processed. If the 3D unwrapping is chosen, all the pairs belonging to the Delaunay 3D network need to
be unwrapped again, since they shall be processed together.
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Resume of used parameters
In the work_parameters.sml file (it can be found in the _SBAS_processing/work folder) are written all the
main parameters used during the SBAS processing. It is helpful to retrieve which specific tuning was used to
process this stack.
Figure 110. work_parameters.sml for ASAR processing.
Figure 111. work_parameters.sml for PALSAR processing.
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The GPS usage
The GPS information can be used in two ways:
To link the results to the ground truth. In this case the GPS imported points (or part of them) can be
used as GCPs for the refinement. If there are just few points in the covered area, it is suggested to
use these GCPs during the Second Inversion step as at this stage the phase ramps should have
already been removed, and only a final offset removal from the displacement time series (and from
the velocity) is needed. The user can decide to apply a poly degree of 1 at this stage: the software
estimates the average offset from each displacement layer of the time series.
To make a comparison between the SBAS results and the GPS measurements.
For this training we decided to use the only GPS available point, in the PALSAR and ASAR sample stack area,
as validation. Below are described the most relevant steps to import, filter and under-sample the GPS data,
to validate the SBAS results.
Figure 112. The red shape defines the coverage of the ASAR and PALSAR sample stack and the red points
are the available GPS locations.
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Figure 113. Zoom on the GPS 93033, inside the area covered by the ASAR and PALSAR sample stack. The
imprecise Google Earth geo-localization (5-10m), to respect the GPS, can be noted.
GPS ID Acquisition year

93025 1996 / 2011
93033 1996 / 2011
93037 1996 / 2011
960756 1997/ 2011
Table 4. Available GPS ID and covered time span (at one day measurement frequency). The only GPS
contained in the training sample area is the ID 93033.
Figure 114. Import GPS in GSI format.
Once the GPS has been imported, the kml and the shape files are generated. If the original time series of
the GPS do not cover exactly the same time span and sampling time rate, the software generates a shape
file for each point. The xml file generated can be used from SARscape as refinement GCP.
The imported GPS time series can be visualized by using the General Tools, Time series Analyzer, Vector, on
the created shape files.
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Tip: if there are too many measurements, the shape file cannot be visualized. In any case the xml file
can still be used by SARscape because the software automatically extracts the interpoled GPS
position from the entire time series, depending on the SAR acquisition date. When the number of
measurement is too large, the analysis of the GPS temporal series can be performed only in two
ways: under-sample them, or just take fewer measurements.
Figure 115. Temporal series (GPS z coordinate evolution) plotted by the Time Series Analyzer tool on the
GPS ID 9033 in green. Only the measurements from 2001 till 2006 have been imported for this figure. Here
we can note the strong variability on the GPS measurement on the subsidence trend. In yellow the same
temporal series after the time filtering application ( GPS Filtering-Undersampling tool). Here the displacement
trend is clearer.
When looking at the previous figure, it is clear that the GPS temporal series should be filtered. A temporal
windows of 50 days compared to respect the daily acquisition of the GPS, should be enough. Moreover, to
compare the GPS temporal series with the ASAS and with PALSAR temporal series, an under-sampling and
the propagation along the Line of Sight (LOS) is performed for each stack. The GPS Filtering-Undersampling
tool can be found under the General Tools menu of SARscape. This tool performs in this order: low pass
filter, linear fit, under-sampling, propagation along LOS of the time series. The propagation along the LOS
direction affect only the shape file, and not the xml file used for the refinement. The xml file keeps the
original cartographic system measurement. During the refinement the software is able to automatically
extract and propagate back along the actual slant range direction, depending on the processed
interferograms.
The time series reported in the shape file contains the following values (depending on the flag LOS Time
Series):
The z coordinate difference with respect to the z coordinate of the first GPS measurement
The LOS distance (from the satellite position to the GPS ground position) difference with respect to
the first GPS LOS distance measurement.
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Figure 116. GPS Filtering-Undersampling tool applied on ASAR acquisition sampling rate, with a filter of 50
days and the displacement propagation along the LOS direction.
Figure 117. GPS Filtering-Undersampling tool applied on PALSAR acquisition sampling rate, with a filter of
50 days and the displacement propagation along the LOS direction.
After the Filtering-Undersampling step the following files are obtained:

GPS_filtered_undersampled_ASAR.xml and GPS_filtered_undersampled_PALSAR.xml, respectively for the
ASAR under-sampling and for PALSAR under-sampling. The shape versions are generated, in both: slant
range geometry and in ground geometry.
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Figure 118. Comparison between the geocoded temporal series from ASAR processing (green) and PALSAR
processing (yellow). The corresponding meta file is: SI_geo_disp_meta in the _SBAS_processing\inversion
folder. The temporal series have been measured in the same geocoded location of the GPS.
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Figure 119. Comparison between the temporal series from ASAR processing (yellow) and the GPS time
series reported in LOS direction extracted on the same acquisitions date (green):
GPS_filtered_undersampled_ASAR_geo.shp.
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Figure 120. Comparison between the temporal series from PALSAR processing (yellow) and the GPS time
series reported in LOS direction extracted on the same acquisitions date (green):
GPS_filtered_undersampled_PALSAR_geo.shp.
The quantitative comparison is made by estimating the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) and the Standard
Deviation (STD). These statistical parameters are estimated on the difference between the ASAR and GPS
time series and on the difference between the PALSAR and GPS time series.
The velocity of the GPS is retrieved on a second time, by flagging the Linear fit on the GPS Filtering-
Undersampling tool.
ASAR PALSAR
RMSE (mm) 8.6724939730 7.9937093364
STD (mm) 4.477681914 3.399561097
Velocity SBAS LOS (mm/y) -4.7523093224 -7.1718797684
Velocity GPS LOS (mm/y) -7.3484189134 -9.658002202
Velocity difference (mm/y) 2.5961095910 2.4861224337
Table 5. Statistic ASAR and PALSAR time series vs. GPS time series.
It must be taken into account that the refinement points used for these training are chosen without a
reliable ground truth. The selected area is so small to be comparable with the subsidence area. It is hard to
retrieve stable refinement GCPs, and the GPS points cannot be used because there is only one in this sample
(and is used as test point).
Tip: choose a bit bigger sample area for two main reasons: to improve the processing accuracy (co-
registration, filtering, etc.) and to help the refinement GCPs choice. A wrong GCPs location choice
can cause a completely wrong result. In any case all the results produced are referred to the GCP
used in the Second Inversion step.
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Mosaicking of SBAS results
The mosaicking of SBAS displacement rates (_vel_geo) obtained from different frames acquired along the
same track is a straightforward operation, that can be accomplished with the SARscape -> General Tools ->
Mosaicking -> Conventional Mosaicking tool: the Last Pixel option is recommended in this case.
It is worth recalling that other layers are generated together with the _vel_geo, including the _ALOS, _ILOS
and precision files, to document additional parameters (as the original acquisition geometry) for each pixel.
The same mosaicking procedure can hence be applied to these additional layers to maintain the whole
information. The mosaicking of the displacement time series may be performed only if the stacks to be
combined together contain all the same date; in positive case, the same strategy used to combine the
average displacement rates will be applied in this case.
Theoretically more complex is the case of measurements resulting from adjacent, parallel tracks (obtained
with the same either ascending or descending geometry and same mean incidence angle). First of all, as
discussed within the section describing the Refinement and Re-Flattening tool, the GCPs will be exploited
during the processing which took place also in the areas where the tracks overlap, to guarantee as far as
possible consistent results in these regions as obtained from the different measurements.
Afterwards, a rigorous solution could be obtained in case of known absolute displacement direction. In such
a case (e.g. for subsidence), the best approach would be mosaicking together the displacement rates after
re-projecting them onto this common known direction. Since the full direction of the displacement is in
general not known a-priori for every area, the only remaining option is to exploit the same approach as in
case of data obtained from the same track, using SARscapes Conventional Mosaicing tool with the Last Pixel
option active. The drawback of this procedure is that some discontinuities could show up in the areas at the
borders between the two tracks in regions of severe displacement, since the same absolute displacement is
projected onto two slightly different geometries. This is a correct effect, from a theoretical point of view, but
it could generate visually unpleasant effects (perceived as artefacts). On the other hand it is important to
note that for most satellite sensors and modes the difference of the incidence angle between the near range
(e.g. of one track) and the far range (e.g. of the adjacent track) is of few degrees (5-7 at maximum). This
corresponds to a small difference in the value of the same displacement rate when projected onto the two
different LOS directions. In case of Radarsat-2 data, for example, the difference is only of about 6%, a value
that is typically far below the noise floor of the low displacement areas, and might become appreciable only
in areas with displacement rates of several cm / year. Finally, we have to point out that this is only (if ever
visible) a visual effect: the mosaicked ALOS and ILOS layers (generated with the same approach as the
mosaicked _vel_geo file) will maintain the original information about the acquisition geometry of each pixel
and it could therefore be very simple to clarify if a discontinuity which may show up is due just to a change
of the original acquisition geometry from a pixel (acquired on a certain track) to the next one (e.g. acquired
on another track).
The mosaicking of the displacement time series is not possible in this case, since there will be no common
acquisition dates between stacks acquired on different tracks.
Finally, the mosaicking of the vector files generated as shape files can be obtained with common functions
outside SARscape (e.g. within ArcGIS). The same considerations made about raster data obtained from
frames and / or different tracks apply also in this case. Additionally it is important to say that, since the
mosaicking of the time series for data from the same track cannot be guaranteed and this is surely
impossible for data obtained from different tracks, the Generate Shape Time Series option should
be de-selected when converting the raster into shape files to be finally mosaicked.
90
References
Berardino, P.; Fornaro, G.; Lanari, R.; Sansosti, E.; "A new algorithm for surface deformation monitoring
based on small baseline differential SAR interferograms", IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote
Sensing, vol.40, no.11, pp. 2375- 2383, Nov 2002.
91
Acknowledge
Thanks to JAXA to provide the ALOS PALSAR stack, to ESA to provide the ENVISAT ASAR stack and to GSI
Japan to provide the GPS data for this tutorial.
The PALSAR data are provided by RESTEC are covered by copyright: RESTEC included JAXA/METI.
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SBAS Tutorial

SBAS workflow ........................................................................................................................................ 3

Figure 1. Logical workflow for the SBAS module.

1. Connection Graph Generation

Table 1. ASAR and PALSAR stack list.

.hdr (an ASCII header for ENVI visualization)

Figure 3. ENVI Preferences panel. Suggested settings

Figure 12. Connection Graph tool ASAR processing

Figure 13. Connection Graph tool PALSAR processing

the results (raster, shape, kml, etc);

Figure 21. Example of auxiliary file

Portion of the Auxiliary as before re-starting:

The processed pair nomenclature is the following: _MasterDate_m_ID_SlaveDate_s_ID. In this way, it is

Figure 23. Area of Interest Definition tool.

By increasing the multi-looking factor, the pixel spatial resolution decrease.

Extract from Asar_20080804_slc.sml

GroundRangePixelSpacing = PixelSpacingRg / sin(IncidenceAngle) = 20.114

Extract from Palsar_FBD_20081201_slc.sml

groundRangePixelSpacing = PixelSpacingRg / sin(IncidenceAngle) = 14.972

For an almost square pixel of 15 meters the correct multi-looking should be :

The phase is proportional to the temporal baseline of the interferograms.

when there are many residual fringes, strongly non linear

Figure 41. On the left: flattened and filtered (wrapped) interferogram

Input wrapped Out unwrapped

Tip Leave enough redundancy for each acquisition.

Figure 50. Refinement and Re-Flattening tool for ASAR processing.

Figure 52. Refinement and Re-Flattening tool for PALSAR processing.

There should be no residual topography fringes

Figure 59. Resulting geocoded unwrapped interferograms. On the left:

Click on ENVI Symbol Annotation button to activate the GCP selection

Figure 63. Inversion First Step tool for ASAR processing.

Figure 64. Inversion First Step tool for PALSAR processing.

Phase = (Hres*K1) + (V*T1*4/)

velocity from -17mm/y (dark blue) to +6mm/y (red)

height from -9m (dark blue) to +3m (red).

Quadratic model: V*T + (1/2)*A*T2

Where A is the acceleration and dA is the acceleration variation.

First Wrapped First

Figure 76. Inversion Second Step tool for ASAR processing.

Figure 77. Inversion Second Step tool for PALSAR processing.

velocity from -17 mm/y (dark blue) to +6mm/y (red)

displacement from -60mm (dark blue) to +8mm (red).

Figure 85. Geocoding tool for ASAR processing.

Figure 86. Geocoding tool for PALSAR processing.

It has been decided to use:

velocity from -17mm/y (dark blue) to +6mm/y (red)

Figure 98. Raster to Shape Conversion tool for ASAR processing.

Figure 99. Raster to Shape Conversion tool for PALSAR processing.

It has been decided to use:

Figure 110. work_parameters.sml for ASAR processing.

Figure 111. work_parameters.sml for PALSAR processing.

The GPS information can be used in two ways:

GPS ID Acquisition year

Figure 114. Import GPS in GSI format.

After the Filtering-Undersampling step the following files are obtained:

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Phase = (HresK1) + (VT1*4/)

Quadratic model: VT + (1/2)A*T2