| Title | Evaluation of RADARSAT-2 acquisition modes for wetland monitoring applications |
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| Author | Brisco, B; Murnaghan, K; Wdowinski, S; Hong, S -H |
| Source | Canadian Journal of Remote Sensing vol. 41, issue 5, 2015 p. 431-439, https://doi.org/10.1080/07038992.2015.1104636 |
| Image |  |
| Year | 2015 |
| Alt Series | Natural Resources Canada, Contribution Series 20180151 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited |
| Document | serial |
| Lang. | English |
| Media | paper; on-line; digital |
| File format | pdf; html |
| Area | Florida; Everglades National Park; United States of America |
| Lat/Long WENS | -81.5000 -80.0000 26.1000 24.9000 |
| Subjects | geophysics; surficial geology/geomorphology; remote sensing; satellites; radar methods; wetlands; water levels; vegetation; monitoring; Data processing |
| Illustrations | location maps; satellite images; tables; graphs |
| Program | Remote Sensing Science |
| Released | 2015 10 12 |
| Abstract | Interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) techniques can monitor water-level changes in wetlands with suitable coherence. RADARSAT-2 has many beam modes with varying system parameters to satisfy
a wide range of applications. During data acquisition the SAR signals are digitized using eight-bit analog-to-digital converters followed by block adaptive quantization (BAQ) coding. Most RADARSAT-2 beam modes use three-bit BAQ but some modes use
two-bit BAQ to accommodate larger data sets, including the wide multilook fine and wide ultrafine modes. These modes are attractive for surface monitoring applications due to good resolution over a wide swath. The two-bit BAQ can have signal
saturation due to the smaller dynamic range and an increased phase noise. The Everglades National Park (ENP) has been used for numerous InSAR investigations of water level monitoring. This study describes the results of an evaluation of RADARSAT-2
products from different modes for the monitoring of water-level changes and flooded vegetation in ENP. The objective was to evaluate products from a variety of beam modes for wetland monitoring applications and subsequent unwrapping of the
interferograms for water level estimation. The results show that wide-swath high-resolution modes are suitable for InSAR applications due to adequate coherence and high backscatter intensity. |
| Summary | (Plain Language Summary, not published)
InSAR is an established technique used for a wide variety of earth surface monitoring applications including monitoring water level changes in wetlands.
RADARSAT-2 has many beam modes to satisfy a wide range of application requirements and during data acquisition the SAR signals are digitized using 8-bit Analog to Digital (A/D) converters followed by Block Adaptive Quantization (BAQ) coding. This
study describes the results of a comparison of 2-bit versus 3-bit BAQ downloads for RADARSAT-2 products for the InSAR measurement of water level changes in vegetated wetlands in ENP. The objectives were to evaluate the phase noise and saturation
issues of the 2-bit products when compared to the 3-bit products. The results show that the adequate signal to noise in vegetated wetlands accommodates the use of 2-bit BAQ downloads for InSAR applications such as water level monitoring. This is
good news because the swath coverage with moderately high resolution of these modes is attractive for monitoring applications. |
| GEOSCAN ID | 308461 |
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