Histogram SAR Tomography: Model and Airborne Observations

Histogram SAR tomography, or SAR histomography, is an imaging technique that utilizes single-baseline interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) histograms to infer the vertical structure of vegetation. InSAR histograms are obtained by binning SAR image pixel values, such as backscatter, according to their interferometric phase values. InSAR his- tograms are a proxy for vegetation structure, from which surface topography and tree height can be extracted. This paper reviews the histomography algorithm and proposes a model for evaluating the algorithm performance. New histomogram results obtained at tropical forests imaged in previous NASA/JPL UAVSAR airborne campaigns are reported to support the method.

直方图合成孔径雷达层析成像（Histogram SAR Tomography，亦称SAR组构成像（SAR histomography））是一种借助单基线干涉合成孔径雷达（Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar, InSAR）直方图反演植被垂直结构的成像技术。干涉合成孔径雷达直方图通过将合成孔径雷达图像的像素值（如后向散射强度）按其干涉相位值进行分箱处理得到。此类直方图可作为植被结构的替代表征，从中可提取地表地形与树木高度信息。本文对SAR组构成像算法进行了综述，并提出了一种用于评估该算法性能的模型。本文还报道了在先前NASA/JPL的UAVSAR（Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar）机载飞行任务所成像的热带林区中获取的新型组构直方图结果，以佐证该方法的有效性。