Wide-Area Analysis-Ready Radar Backscatter Composites
Open Access
- 11 February 2021
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing
- Vol. 60 (01962892), 1-14
- https://doi.org/10.1109/tgrs.2021.3055562
Abstract
The benefits of composite products are well known to users of data from optical sensors: cloud-cleared composite reflectance or index products are commonly used as an analysis-ready data (ARD) layer. No analogous composite products are currently in widespread use that is based on spaceborne radar satellite backscatter signals. Here, we present a methodology to produce wide-area ARD composite backscatter images. They build on the existing heritage of geometrically and radiometrically terrain corrected level 1 products. By combining backscatter measurements of a single region seen from multiple satellite tracks (incl. ascending and descending), they are able to provide wide-area coverage with low latency. The analysis-ready composite backscatter maps provide flattened backscatter estimates that are geometrically and radiometrically corrected for slope effects. A mask layer annotating the local quality of the composite resolution is introduced. Multiple tracks are combined by weighting each observation by its local resolution, generating seamless wide-area backscatter maps suitable for applications ranging from wet snow monitoring to land cover classification or short-term change detection.Keywords
Funding Information
- ESA-funded Telespazio/Vega (IDEAS+ VEGA/AG/15/0175710.13039/501100000844)
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