Synthetic aperture radar interferometry: a statistical model for layover areas

Abstract

SAR interferometry (InSAR) for topographic mapping is in essence an inverse problem. The author has previously proposed a formal treatment of the problem within the framework of Bayesian inference. To implement this approach it is necessary to construct probabilistic models which relate the measured SAR data to the scene properties, i.e. the likelihood function P (data|/spl theta/). The authors now proposes a simple model for the joint statistics in layover areas (i.e. where two or more parts of the scene map to the same area in slant range).