Evaluation of Ensemble Coherence as a Measure for Stochastic and Systematic Phase Inconsistencies

The presence of stochastic and systematic inconsistencies is a concern for the precision and interpretability of Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) when distributed scatterers are exploited for SAR time series analysis [1]. Multitemporal phase estimators aim at retrieving a consistent common-master interferometric time series, thereby reducing the effect of stochastic inconsistencies. Exploiting data redundancy the latter estimators are theoretically expected to decrease the susceptibility to systematic inconsistencies as well. In this contribution we seek a computationally efficient quality measure to show the effectiveness of multitemporal phase estimation in the reduction of inconsistencies. Choosing the ensemble coherence as a candidate, we firstly seek a constant false alarm rate detector for initial detection of signal-bearing areas. Furthermore the impact of phase inconsistencies on the ensemble coherence will be brought into attention.