Potential and limits for reconstruction of buildings from high resolution SAR data of urban areas

State-of-the-art airborne SAR sensors provide images with a spatialresolution in the order of a meter and current developed spacebornesystems will reach a similar resolution. First results of a leading-edgeairborne SAR system have shown that objects of size even below a decimeter can be resolved. In such data many featuresof urban objects can be identified, which were beyond the scope of radar remote sensing before. Reflections of roof structures likeeaves and ridges or wall structures like single windows appear well contrasted in the intensity image. Therefore, the focus of theimage interpretation shifted from radiometric to geometric properties of man-made objects like buildings. The focus of this paperis to show the new opportunities and challenges for the analysis of urban areas, which arise from the availability of high-resolutionSAR data. One main benefit is that additional object structures become now visible in the data.     «

State-of-the-art airborne SAR sensors provide images with a spatialresolution in the order of a meter and current developed spacebornesystems will reach a similar resolution. First results of a leading-edgeairborne SAR system have shown that objects of size even below a decimeter can be resolved. In such data many featuresof urban objects can be identified, which were beyond the scope of radar remote sensing before. Reflections of roof structures likeeaves and ridges or wall structures like sing...     »