A review of underlying topography estimation over forest areas by In SAR: Theory, advances, challenges and perspectives

The paramount importance and multi-purpose applications of underlying topography over forest areas have gained widespread recognition over recent decades, bringing about a variety of experimental studies on accurate underlying topography mapping. The highly spatial and temporal dynamics of forest scenarios makes traditional measuring techniques difficult to construct the precise underlying topography surface. Microwave remote sensing has been demonstrated as a promising technique to retrieve the underlying topography over large areas within a limited period, including synthetic aperture radar interferometry(InSAR), polarimetric InSAR(PolInSAR) and tomographic SAR(TomoSAR). In this paper, firstly, the main principle of digital elevation model(DEM) generation by InSAR and SAR data acquisition over forest area are introduced. Following that, several methods of underlying topography extraction based on InSAR, PolInSAR, and TomoSAR are introduced and analyzed, as well as their applications and performance are discussed afterwards. Finally, four aspects of challenge are highlighted, including SAR data acquisition, error compensation and correction, scattering model reconstruction and solution strategy of multi-source data, which needs to be further addressed for robust underlying topography estimation.

Unsupervised Change Detection in Multitemporal SAR Images Using MRF Models

An unsupervised change-detection method that considers the spatial contextual information in a log-ratio difference image generated from multitemporal SAR images is proposed. A Markov random filed (MRF) model is particularly employed to exploit statistical spatial correlation of intensity levels among neighboring pixels. Under the assumption of the independency of pixels and mixed Gaussian distribution in the log-ratio difference image, a stochastic and iterative EM-MPM change-detection algorithm based on an MRF model is developed. The EM-MPM algorithm is based on a maximiser of posterior marginals (MPM) algorithm for image segmentation and an expectation-maximum (EM) algorithm for parameter estimation in a completely automatic way. The experiment results obtained on multitemporal ERS-2 SAR images show the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Analysis of Spectral Characteristics Based on Optical Remote Sensing and SAR Image Fusion

Because of cloudy and rainy weather in south China, optical remote sens-ing images often can＇t be obtained easily. With the regional trial results in Baoying, Jiangsu province, this paper explored the fusion model and effect of ENVISAT/SAR and HJ-1A satel ite multispectral remote sensing images. Based on the ARSIS strat-egy, using the wavelet transform and the Interaction between the Band Structure Model （IBSM）, the research progressed the ENVISAT satel ite SAR and the HJ-1A satel ite CCD images wavelet decomposition, and low/high frequency coefficient re-construction, and obtained the fusion images through the inverse wavelet transform. In the light of low and high-frequency images have different characteristics in differ-ent areas, different fusion rules which can enhance the integration process of self-adaptive were taken, with comparisons with the PCA transformation, IHS transfor-mation and other traditional methods by subjective and the corresponding quantita-tive evaluation. Furthermore, the research extracted the bands and NDVI values around the fusion with GPS samples, analyzed and explained the fusion effect. The results showed that the spectral distortion of wavelet fusion, IHS transform, PCA transform images was 0.101 6, 0.326 1 and 1.277 2, respectively and entropy was 14.701 5, 11.899 3 and 13.229 3, respectively, the wavelet fusion is the highest. The method of wavelet maintained good spectral capability, and visual effects while improved the spatial resolution, the information interpretation effect was much better than other two methods.

PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF SEVERAL FUSION APPROACHES FOR CCD/SAR IMAGES

Several image fusion approaches for CCD/SAR images are studied and the performance evaluation of these fusion approaches is completed in this paper. Firstly, the preprocessing of CCD/SAR images before fusion is fulfilled. Then, the image fusion methods including linear superposition, nonlinear operator method and multiresolution methods, of which the multiresolution methods include Laplacian pyramid, ratio pyramid, contrast pyramid, gradient pyramid, morphological pyramid and discrete wavelet transform, are adopted to fuse two types of images. Lastly, the four performance measures, standard deviation, entropy, cross entropy and spatial frequency, are calculated to compare the fusion results by different fusion approaches in this paper. Experimental results show that contrast pyramid, morphology pyramid and discrete wavelet transformation in multiresolution approaches are more suitable for CCD/SAR image fusion than other ones proposed in this paper and the objective performance evaluation of CCD/SAR image fusion approaches are effective.

Mapping Deciduous Broad-leaved Forested Swamps Using ALOS/Palsar Data

Accurate, updated information on the distribution of wetlands is essential for estimating net fluxes of greenhouse gases and for effectively protecting and managing wetlands. Because of their complex community structure and rich surface vegetation, deciduous broad-leaved forested swamps are considered to be one of the most difficult types of wetland to classify. In this research, with the support of remote sensing and geographic information system, multi-temporal radar images L-Palsar were used initially to extract the forest hydrological layer and phenology phase change layer as two variables through image analysis. Second, based on the environmental characteristics of forested swamps, three decision tree classifiers derived from the two variables were constructed to explore effective methods to identify deciduous broad-leaved forested swamps. Third, this study focused on analyzing the classification process between flat-forests, which are the most severely disturbed elements, and forested swamps. Finally, the application of the decision tree model will be discussed. The results showed that: 1) L-HH band(a L band with wavelength of 0–235 m in HH polarization mode; HH means Synthetic Aperture Radars transmit pulses in horizontal polarization and receive in horizontal polarization) in the leaf-off season is shown to be capable of detecting hydrologic conditions beneath the forest; 2) the accuracy of the classification(forested swamp and forest plat) was 81.5% based on hydrologic features, and 83.5% was achieved by combining hydrologic features and phenology response features, which indicated that hydrological characteristics under the forest played a key role. The HHOJ(refers to the band created by the subtraction with HH band in October and HH band in July) achieved by multi-temporal radar images did improve the classification accuracy, but not significantly, and more leaf-off radar images may be more efficient than multi-seasonal radar images for inland forested swamp mapping; 3) the lower separability between forested swamps dominated by vegetated surfaces and forest plat covered with litter was the main cause of the uncertainty in classification, which led to misleading interpretations of the pixel-based classification. Finally, through the analysis with kappa coefficients, it was shown that the value of the intersection point was an ideal choice for the variable.

基于干涉极化SAR数据的森林树高反演

将Cloude极化干涉散射模型和ESPRIT算法结合来降低森林参数反演的运算量。利用ESPRIT算法对Cloude模型中的散射相位中心进行估计,再将估计得到的散射相位中心代入Cloude模型,从而得到树木高度等参数。采用中国天山地区SIR-C/X-SARL波段全极化干涉数据对森林地区植被树高进行了反演实验。实验表明,与直接采用Cloude的极化干涉模型进行反演相比,在反演精度不变的情况下,运算时间仅是单独使用Cloude模型的1%～2%。

利用遥感和社会感知数据的城市冷热点街区分类研究

在城市建设过程中,街区活力是优质城市空间布局的目的与根本。街区活力与多个因素密切相关,其中最明显的是人群聚集状态、建筑环境以及设施的分布。提出了一种利用遥感和社会感知数据进行城市冷热点街区分析的方法:利用合成孔径雷达(synthetic aperture radar,SAR)遥感技术构建建筑环境;利用社会感知数据分析人口聚集程度;最后,利用GIS统计方法把街区建筑环境数据与人流密度进行匹配、融合,从而对城市街区是否具有活力进行评价,揭示并分析城市中的热点街区与可能存在的类似"空城"的冷点街区。

Building Extraction from High Resolution SAR Imagery in Urban Areas

In this paper, the textural characteristics of the buildings were quantified by using two texture descriptors, namely, Square Root Pair Difference （SRPD） and Gi ＊. Then, a novel method, based on SRPD and Gi ＊, to extract building areas in ur- ban areas from very high resolution SAR images is presented. The results showed that this method has the ability to differentiate buildings from the complicated features in urban areas, which can be employed for land mapping and provides support for relief operations.