JERS INSAR DEM generation for Borneo

The Sebuku-Sembakung area of north-eastern Kalimantan, Indonesia (Borneo) has been proposed by the WWF as a national park because of its large biodiversity with habitats including various types of tropical forests and swamps. Currently, only low resolution DEM data exists for the area. This has motivated an effort to produce a topographic map of the region using L-band repeat pass interferometry with JERS-1 data. Significant coverage exists for the area and passes were selected on the basis of coverage, time interval and baseline. Regions with sufficient interferometric correlation for DEM production over the 44 day repeat interval are mangrove and tidal swamp forests. Other surface classes including peat swamp, lowland mixed and hill Dipterocarp forest have lower correlation that precludes generation accurate topography from the available JERS-1 data in these areas.