Acta Geodaetica et Cartographica Sinica ›› 2025, Vol. 54 ›› Issue (6): 1009-1020.doi: 10.11947/j.AGCS.2025.20240426

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LT-1 InSAR block adjustment considering the impact of penetration depth in forest areas

Kefu WU1(), Haiqiang FU1(), Jianjun ZHU1, Qijin HAN2, Aichun WANG2, Mingxia ZHANG2, Zhiwei LI1   

  1. 1.School of Geosciences and Info-Physics, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China
    2.China Centre for Resources Satellite Data and Application, Beijing 100094, China
  • Received:2024-10-16 Revised:2025-05-14 Online:2025-07-14 Published:2025-07-14
  • Contact: Haiqiang FU E-mail:kefuwu@csu.edu.cn;haiqiangfu@csu.edu.cn
  • About author:WU Kefu (2000—), male, PhD candidate, majors in InSAR topographic mapping and regional network adjustment. E-mail: kefuwu@csu.edu.cn
  • Supported by:
    The National Natural Science Foundation of China(42227801);The National Science Foundation for Distinguished Young Scholars of China(41925016);The Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province(2023JJ20061)

Abstract:

Due to its intense penetration, the first L-band interferometric SAR constellation, LuTan-1 (LT-1), has unique advantages in sub-canopy topography mapping. The block adjustment utilizes height control points (spaceborne LiDAR) and tie-points to calibrate the systematic error, which is the basis for LT-1 to carry out large-scale sub-canopy topography mapping. However, to avoid the problem of InSAR altimetry deviation from LiDAR caused by forest scattering, the existing block adjustment methods only select bare-earth points, which are prone to pathological observations with systematic error. Given this, this paper uses the SINC model that describes the forest scattering process to compensate for the InSAR altimetry deviation and establishes a block adjustment model considering the influence of penetration depth. We used two test sites with forest coverage of about 85% and 50% to verify the algorithm's effectiveness. The results show that the LT-1 DEM estimated in this paper improves the height accuracy by 22.1% and 12.5% compared with the traditional method, and the height accuracy and forest penetration rate are at the highest level compared with COP-DEM, SRTM, and AW3D. Furthermore, the LT-1 sub-canopy topography estimated based on the SINC model improved the height measurement accuracy by 40.6% and 25.5% compared with the LT-1 DEM, with RMSE of 3.15 m and 2.80 m, respectively.

Key words: block adjustment, InSAR, LT-1, DEM, sub-canopy topography, SINC model

CLC Number: