EVALUATION OF DEM DERIVED BY REPEAT-PASS X-BAND STRIPMAP MODE PAZ DATA

Abstract. This paper, presents the initial results of digital elevation model (DEM) extraction from PAZ Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite images using repeat-pass interferometric analysis. We used a multi-temporal high-resolution strip-map mode X-band satellite image that has a single polarization. Five main classes, i.e., volcanic structures, agriculture, settlement, sand dune and plain bareland are considered depending on the structure of the region. Within the category, the coherence value and DEM value are evaluated. In the accuracy assessment analysis, a reference map produced from aerial photogrammetry is used. Additionally, global DEM TanDEM-X data is also tested in the study region. In the analysis, quality metrics, mean error (ME), root means square error (RMSE), standard deviation (STD), and the normalized median absolute deviation (NMAD) are used. The results showed that as the temporal baseline increases the coherence values and the quality of the DEM product decrease. The RMSE values range between 2.36 m to 7.09 m in different classes. The TanDEM-X data provided high accuracies over each class range from 0.88 m to 2.40 m. Since the study area is vulnerable to sinkhole formation, sinkhole-like signals were also observed in the interferograms obtained from different and sequential pairs. The high-resolution repeat-pass PAZ data pointed out its potential for interferometric products generation.