D1LA1 LeToan PDF

Introduction to
SAR Remote Sensing

Thuy Le Toan
September 3, 2007
Lecture D1La1
Contents
• Introduction to radar remote sensing
• The Synthetic Aperture Radar
• Geometric properties of SAR images
• Statistic properties of SAR measurements
• Physical content of SAR data
September 3, 2007 Lecture D1La1 Introduction to SAR remote sensing Thuy Le Toan
Contents
SAR: Active microwave imaging system
PASSIVE SENSORS ACTIVE SENSORS
Detect the reflected or emitted Detect reflected responses from objects
electromagnetic radiation from natural irradiated by artificially-generated energy
sources. sources.
Non-Imaging (ex. Microwave Non-Imaging ( ex: microwave radiometer,
radiometer, magnetic sensor) microwave altimeter, laser)
Imaging (ex: cameras, optical Imaging (Real Aperture Radar, Synthetic

mechanical scanner, spectrometer, Aperture Radar)
microwave radiometer)
RADAR: Radio Detection and Ranging
SLAR: Side Looking Airborne Radar, developed during the World War II, for all
weather and day and night aircraft operations over land and sea,
SAR: Synthetic Aperture Radar, airborne systems developed in 1950’s

Radar remote sensing
Radar frequency
Frequency band Wavelength (cm) Frequency (GHz)
Ka 0.8-1.1 40 - 26.5
K 1.1-1.7 26.5 - 18
Ku 1.7-2.4 18 - 12.5
X 2.4-3.8 12.5 -8
C 3.8-7.5 8 -4
S 7.5-15 4 -2
L 15 -30 2 -1
P 30 -100 1 - 0.3
f (in Hertz)=C/λ C=3.108 m

λ =wavelength in m
Spaceborne SARs
Satellite Years Agency Frequency - Resolution Special
Polarisation - Swath
ERS-1 1991-2000 ESA C - VV 25 m Interferometry
100 km (with ERS-2)
JERS 1992-1998 NASDA L-HH 25 m Region. mosaic
100 km available
ERS-2 1995 ESA C - VV 25 m Interferometry
100 km (with ERS-1)
RADARSAT-1 1995 CSA C - HH 10 -100 m Multi-incidence
45 - 500 km
ENVISAT - 2002 ESA C - HH/VV/HV 25 - 1000 m Multi-incidence
ASAR 50 - 500 km
ALOS - 2006 JAXA L- 10 - 100 m Multi-incidence
PALSAR Polarimetric 100 - 350
km
TerraSAR-X 2007 DLR Interferometry
Cosmo- Italy X-Polarimetric 1m (1 day)
Skymed
RADARSAT 2 2008 ? CSA C- < 10 m Multi-incidence
Polarimetric
Characteristics of radar remote sensing
Advantages compared to optical remote sensing
all weather capability (small sensitivity of clouds, light rain)
day and night operation (independence of sun illumination)
no effects of atmospheric constituents (multitemporal analysis)
sensitivity to dielectric properties (water content , biomass, ice)
sensitivity to surface roughness ( ocean wind speed)
accurate measurements of distance (interferometry)
sensitivity to man made objects
sensitivity to target structure (use of polarimetry)
subsurface penetration
Characteristics of radar remote sensing
Inconvenients
complex interactions (difficulty in understanding, complex processing)

speckle effects (difficulty in visual interpretation)
topograhic effects
effect of surface roughness
All-weather system
An ‘ all-weather ’ imaging system
A microwaves system: cloud penetrating capabilities
ERS-1 SAR, 11.25 a.m. LANDSAT TM, 9.45 a.m.
Ireland, 09/08/1991
Marginal atmospheric effects
Effect of surface roughness- Internal waves
ERS Images (C band, 23°, VV)

in false colors
Gibraltar strait
Image : 90 km x 100 km
• Internal waves (l≈2 km)

Origin : difference of
salinity between Atlantic
Ocean and Mediterranean sea
+ tide effects
From ‘ERS-1 : 500 days in orbit ’.

Published by the European
Space Agency’
Effect of surface roughness- Oil sheet
ERS Image (C band, 23°, VV)
in false colors.
France - Côte d ’Azur
90 km x 90 km, 19/09/91
• Decrease of the sea local

roughness because of oil sheets:
Application : detection of oil sheets,

natural or illicit.
Oil sheet
From ‘ERS-1 : 500 days in orbit ’.

Published by the European Space Agency’
Topographic effects
Sedimentary basin (Kalimantan, Indonesia) Tropical forest in French Guyana

RADARSAT F4 (C band, ~ 45°, resolution : 8 m) ERS (C band, 23°, VV, resolution : 20 m)
• The SAR side looking makes it extremely sensible to the relief, even under vegetation cover
in tropical forests.
Multitemporal analysis
Red: October 1997

Green: December 1997
Blue: January 1998
Multidate ERS data

Use of polarisation
Rice mapping using HH/VV at a single date
September 6th, 2004 Hongze area
Magenta=HH, Green=VV yellow=rice, red=urban, black=other
Sub-canopy penetration
Varzea Dry Season Varzea Wet Season
P-band image Document S.Saatchi, JPL P-band image

Subsurface penetration
L-band
Document P. Paillou
Tree height inversion
using Polarimetric Interferometry (PolinSAR)
Tree height
Phase Centre height (m)

HV
VV
HH
Ground level
Garestier, 2006
Accurate range measurement
Radar Interferometry (1/2)
Relief Terrain displacement
B
Etna Landers
iso-altitude curves iso-displacement curves
Digital elevation models Cartography of terrain displacements
Radar Interferometry (2/2)
ERS Interferometry
Mesa, USA/ Mexico border
• Impact of a geothermal plant on

the environment. Interferogram
processed from two ERS images,
acquired at two years interval.
The fringes characterize the
ground subsidence around the
plant. One observe a subsidence
of about 6 cm (2 fringes) which
covers 17km x 8km.
ERS intensity image Interferogramme

Contents
Principle of imaging radar
Active system: day and night operations

Principle of imaging radar (3/6)
Side-Looking Airborne Radar
Azimuth direction
Linear displacement of
Range direction the antenna along the
track (aircraft)
Pulses
The range information comes from the

time needed by the pulse to travel way
and back
Why side looking ?
Antenna scattering
R
λ Wavelength
θ=
L
L
R)
θ.
(r=
θ Antenna length
n
(horizontal
t io
Angular aperture
lu
(horizontal plane) direction)
so
Re
The larger the antenna, the narrower

the aperture (finer resolution)
L'
λR
Ra=
L
’.R
r’=θ Numerical example:
L ≈ 10m, R ≈ 1000 km (spaceborne radar), λ ≈ 5
cm (C band) Î resolution ≈ 5 km
m Azimuth direction
= 10
L
Range direction
H=800 km
Transmitted
pulses
f0 =5.3 GHz
km
a =5
R
Azimuth resolution
= 5 km
Synthetic aperture technique
• An array of antennas is equivalent to a single antenna moving
along the flight line LS if the received signals are coherently recorded
and added, and the target assumed to be static during the period
The echoes from X1, X2, ..Xn

LS
are recorded coherently (amplitude
And phase as a function of time)
X1 X2 Xn
Azimuth resolution
R
λR
Ra=
LS
L
P Finest resolution: Ra=
LS 2
Improvement of the range resolution :
based on the frequency modulation of the transmitted pulse
τ Modulation bandwidth : B
τ comp
τ comp
= 1/B
cτ c
2 2B
5 km Æ 10 m (for B=15 MHz)
The SAR image
bit
Satellite or
Look angle
Off nadir
Slan
t ran
Azimuth
ge
Ground range
Azimuth
Raw data After range compression Detected image

Contents
Geometric Effects
Geometrical artifacts related to the vision in range
The foreshortening effect
(From Elachi, 1989)
• ‘shortening’ of slopes facing the radar

• ‘stretching’ of slopes oppositely oriented to the radar
Geometrical artifacts related to the vision in range
The foreshortening, layover and shadow effects
From: RADARSAT Geology

Handbook
(RADARSAT International), 1997
Contents
• Synthetic Aperture Radar
Basic measurement
The basic measurement made by a SAR is S (amplitude and

phase). This is the complex image.
Main types of images:
A is the amplitude image.

I = A2 is the intensity image.
(the phase of a single image is not exploitable)
Measurements from multiple images
Exploitation of multiple images:
multi temporal, polarisation, incidence, (frequency)
polarimetric images derived from S the

complex image if the SAR system is polarimetric
interferometric images ASAR repeat pass

(coherence, phase) derived from S
multi polarisation intensity images ASAR dual pol
multitemporal intensity images ASAR
The radar cross-section
The radar cross-section (RCS) is defined as
σ pq = 4 π S pq
2
= 4π R
Ps
Pi
2
[m ]
2
R is the radar-target distance

Pi is the incident power,
Ps is the power scattered by the target.
The backscattering coefficient
For distributed targets each resolution cell contains
many scatterers and the phase varies rapidly with
position.
The differential backscattering coefficient, σo, is
4π R 2
Ps [m2/m2]
σ o
=
ΔA Pi
where Δ A is the area of the illuminated surface over
which the phase can be considered constant.
What is a SAR image?
The image is seen as a

picture.
Pixels are numbers.
Image is affected by
speckle noise
Example of an intensity image

APP HH image 400 x 400 pixels (of 12.5m)
Gaoyou, Jiangsu province, China, 2004 05 24
Same image, after speckle filtering
Initial HH and VV images HH and VV image after filtering
HH (magenta) and VV (green) images

400 x400 pixels
Gaoyou, Jiangsu province
2004 09 06
The physical origine of speckle
Ground scene
Constructive
speckle Destructive
speckle
SAR image pixels
Resolution cells are made up of many scatterers with different phases, leading to
interference and the noise-like effect known as speckle.
Statistics of speckle
Probability density function of the amplitude A Probability density distribution of speckle:
Intensity image: exponential distribution
Amplitude image: Rayleigh distribution
c att er
ba ck s
Lo w
tter
igh sca
H ck
ba
Estimating the backscattering coefficient
Given L independent measurements from a uniform
distributed target, the MLE of σ 0 is given by
1 L (k )
I = ∑I
L k =1
where the I(k) are individual intensity measurements.

N.B. This does not depend on the original form of the
data (amplitude, intensity or complex).
L is called the number of looks.
Speckle: Multilooking effect
Pdf of amplitude image for a

given backscatter value. The
Pdf of amplitude A
distribution is narrower with an

increasing number of looks
Amplitude A
Contents
What is a SAR image?
The image represents
physical processes.
Pixels are measurements.
Image is interpretable
based on understanding of
the physical processes
Intensity image, after speckle reduction
The radar scattering
Backscattered Incident electric field
electric field Es Ei
the amplitude, phase and

polarisation of Es are modified
with respect to Ei
e ikr
Es = SEi
r
⎡ Esv ⎤ e ikr ⎡ S vv S vh ⎤ ⎡ Eiv ⎤
⎢E ⎥ = r ⎢S S hh ⎥⎦ ⎢⎣ Eih ⎥⎦
⎣ sh ⎦ ⎣ hv
iφij The scattering matrix contains information on the
Sij = Sij e nature and characteristics of the observed media
Polarisation
Electric field Trajectory of the
Magnetic field
electric field
Propagation direction
Transverse plane
Orientation angle
Ellipticity angle
Projection of the trajectory

of the electric field
Transverse plane
In projection on the transverse plane,

τ= 1 : circular polarisations he tip of the electric field describes
τ =0 : linear polarisations an ellipse called polarisation ellipse
Plane orthogonal to
Electric field the propagation direction
Propagation direction
Horizontal polarisation Vertical polarisation
Example de linear polarisations
Transmission H
H H H H
Receive H
SHH SHH SHH SHH
Receive V
SVH SVH SVH SVH
SIR-C images, L-band 24°, Ulan-Ude, Russia, 1994
Scattering mechanisms
water Surface scattering Surface scattering soil,
rock
Volume scattering if penetration
vegetation Volume scattering snow

Volume scattering
Volume-surface
scattering
Surface scattering
Surface scattering
Scattering Mechanisms
The backscattered signal results from:
- surface scattering
- volume scattering
- multiple volume-surface scattering
The relative importance of these contributions depend on

- surface roughness
- dielectric properties of the medium
All of these factors depend on

- the radar frequency
- the polarisation
- the incidence angle
Surface scattering
Smooth surface Rough surface
εr1 εr1
The roughness of the surface (wrt to the wavelength) governs the
scattering pattern
εr2 > εr1 medium 2 is wetter than medium 1
Wetter media εr2 εr2

The dielectric constant (moisture content) of the medium governs
the strength of the backscatter
Effect of surface roughness
Mud RADARSAT
(C band, HH, 45°)
Quaternary lithology:
Bathurst Island, Canada
From : RADARSAT Geology Handbook
Lime
stone
Mud fragments (smooth surface) Limestone Higher backscatter

low radar backscatter because of rougher surface
Effect of soil moisture
Experimental results using a ground based scatterometer
(adapted from Le Toan, T. , 1982, "Active microwave

signatures of soil and crops: Significant results of three years
of experiments", In Proceedings of International Geoscience
and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS 82)
Effect of soil moisture
Irrigated fields:
higher backscatter
Effects of roughness and moiture
ERS backscattering coefficient (dB)
The relationship between

radar backscatter at C
band 23° VV and soil
moisture is modulated by
surface roughness
Mattia et al., 2000
Volumetric soil moiture content (%)
The surface roughness
Smooth surface (seed bed): Fractal
Rough surface (ploughed): Single scale
Polarisation in surface scattering
Smooth surface Rough surface
V H
V
V
no depolarisation some depolarisation

no HV or VH backscatter HV or VH backscatter > 0
Fresnel Reflectivity RH > RV Fresnel Reflectivity RH = RV
Volume scattering
Single and multiple scattering
What are the scatterers in the volume scattering?
L band P band VHF

Austrian pine X band
λ= 3 cm λ= 27 cm λ= 70 cm λ>3m
The main scatterers in a canopy are the elements having

dimension of the order of the wavelength
Volume scattering
Point scatterer Anisotropic scatterer Multiple scattering
V H H
V V V
H,V
-> no depolarisation -> depolarisation -> depolarisation
Scattering from vegetation
* Order 0
soil
* Order 1: simple scattering
soil soil soil

(negligible)
σ =σ0 0
soil +σ 0
veg . +σ 0
soil − veg .
1 6
4
5
Scatterers
3
contribution
Leaves, Needles 2
Primary Branches
Secondary
branches
1) Direct Crown scattering 4) Multiple trunk-ground
Higher order 2) Direct trunk-ground 5) Attenuated ground
branches
3) Trunk scattering 6) Direct ground scattering
Trunk
Scattering from a cereal canopy
Attenuated ground scattering
Stem-ground interaction Scattering on leaves, ears
Hongze (Jiangsu) 2004 09 06
HH VV
Rice mapping
using HH/VV
Hongze(Jiangsu)
2004 09 06
Phase in SAR images (1/2)
iφij
The SAR measurement contains an amplitude and a phase Sij = Sij e
The phase difference between scatterers of the incident waves
travelling from the radar to a scatterer and back to the radar changes as:
2πΔr
_____
Δφ = where Δr is the difference in the travel distance
λ
Since the SAR resolution cell contains
a large number of scatterers, the phase
of pixels seems randomly distributed
The phase of a single SAR image is

of no utility
−π π
Phase in SAR images (2/2)
If the scene is observed in 2 images, in which the scatterers
remain unchanged in the resolution cell, the phase difference
between pixels of the 2 images can be exploited
Polarimetry: the radar measures at the same time

HH, VV, HV, VH and their phase difference
Interferometry: 2 radars observe the scene with a small shift in

the look angle; or the same radar at different dates from lightly
shifted orbit
Lectures on Polarimetry and interferometry

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Introduction to

SAR Remote Sensing

Imaging (ex: cameras, optical Imaging (Real Aperture Radar, Synthetic

RADAR: Radio Detection and Ranging

SAR: Synthetic Aperture Radar, airborne systems developed in 1950’s

f (in Hertz)=C/λ C=3.108 m

 complex interactions (difficulty in understanding, complex processing)

ERS-1 SAR, 11.25 a.m. LANDSAT TM, 9.45 a.m.

ERS Images (C band, 23°, VV)

• Internal waves (l≈2 km)

From ‘ERS-1 : 500 days in orbit ’.

• Decrease of the sea local

Application : detection of oil sheets,

From ‘ERS-1 : 500 days in orbit ’.

Sedimentary basin (Kalimantan, Indonesia) Tropical forest in French Guyana

Red: October 1997

Multidate ERS data

Magenta=HH, Green=VV yellow=rice, red=urban, black=other

Varzea Dry Season Varzea Wet Season

P-band image Document S.Saatchi, JPL P-band image

Phase Centre height (m)

• Impact of a geothermal plant on

ERS intensity image Interferogramme

Active system: day and night operations

The range information comes from the

The larger the antenna, the narrower

The echoes from X1, X2, ..Xn

based on the frequency modulation of the transmitted pulse

Raw data After range compression Detected image

• ‘shortening’ of slopes facing the radar

From: RADARSAT Geology

The basic measurement made by a SAR is S (amplitude and

Main types of images:

A is the amplitude image.

 polarimetric images derived from S the

 interferometric images ASAR repeat pass

 multi polarisation intensity images ASAR dual pol

 multitemporal intensity images ASAR

R is the radar-target distance

The differential backscattering coefficient, σo, is

The image is seen as a

Pixels are numbers.

Example of an intensity image

HH (magenta) and VV (green) images

SAR image pixels

where the I(k) are individual intensity measurements.

L is called the number of looks.

Pdf of amplitude image for a

distribution is narrower with an

Intensity image, after speckle reduction

the amplitude, phase and

Projection of the trajectory

In projection on the transverse plane,

Horizontal polarisation Vertical polarisation

Volume scattering if penetration

vegetation Volume scattering snow

The relative importance of these contributions depend on

 All of these factors depend on

Smooth surface Rough surface

εr2 > εr1 medium 2 is wetter than medium 1

Wetter media εr2 εr2

From : RADARSAT Geology Handbook

Mud fragments (smooth surface) Limestone Higher backscatter

complex interactions (difficulty in understanding, complex processing)

polarimetric images derived from S the

interferometric images ASAR repeat pass

multi polarisation intensity images ASAR dual pol

multitemporal intensity images ASAR

The relative importance of these contributions depend on

All of these factors depend on

no depolarisation some depolarisation

Fresnel Reflectivity RH > RV Fresnel Reflectivity RH = RV