A simplified approach for a downward-looking GB-InSAR to terrain mapping

In traditional ground-based interferometric synthetic aperture radar (GB-InSAR) signal processing procedure, the image registration and phase unwrapping are the necessary steps to terrain mapping. In this paper, a simplified signal processing procedure for the downward-looking GB-InSAR to terrain mapping is proposed, which focuses pairs of complex radar images on the ground-range plane by the back-projection (BP) algorithm. Image registration and phase unwrapping are avoided by controllable baseline design and some prior parameters knowledge of radar system and illuminated terrain scene. Simulation experiment was carried out to test the simplified procedure, and the final simulated results demonstrated that this approach could acquire accurate and acceptable terrain mapping performances.