Speaker
Description
Single pass radar interferometry (sp-InSAR) is a well established
technique for generation of digital elevation models
(DEM). Differencing two DEMs acquired at different times
can reveal topographic changes. However snow depth estimation
by DEM differencing is still an ongoing topic in radar
research: in contrast to snow free surfaces, the snow surface
elevation is difficult to detect either because of microwave
penetration into dry snow or because of the weak backscatter
return from wet snow which significantly decorrelates the
interferometric signal. In this study we demonstrate first results
of wet snow depth estimation by differencing sp-InSAR
DEMs acquired by the TanDEM-X satellite mission. The results
show, in contrast to dry snow, a clear sensitivity to wet
snow. However, additionally to a high vertical sensitivity of
a few ten centimeters a very low noise-equivalent-sigma-zero
(NESZ) is crucial for successful snow depth estimation.
