Estimating Azimuth Offset With Double-Difference Interferometric Phase: The Effect of Azimuth FM Rate Error in Focusing

Estimating azimuth offset with double-difference interferometric (DDI) phase, which is called multiple-aperture interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) or spectral diversity, is increasingly used in recent years to measure azimuth deformation or to accurately coregister a pair of InSAR images. We analyze the effect of frequency modulation (FM) rate error in focusing on the DDI phase with an emphasis on the azimuth direction. We first comprehensively analyze the errors in various focusing results caused by the FM rate error. We then derive the DDI phase error considering different acquisition modes including stripmap, ScanSAR, and TOPS modes. For stripmap mode, typical DDI phase error is a range ramp, while for burst modes including ScanSAR and TOPS modes it is an azimuth ramp within a burst. The correction methods for the DDI phase error are suggested for different acquisition modes.