A Special Issue on Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry [From the Guest Editors]
Mengdao Xing, Vito Pascazio, Hanwen Yu
Abstract
The articles in this special section focus on inSAR (synthetic aperture radar interferometry) technology. This technology provides the unique ability to quantitatively map Earth’s elevation and surface deformation with high spatial resolution and precision. For this reason, it is used in many remote sensing applications (e.g., landslides, wetland water-level observation, and mining subsidence). Since Seasat-A, the very first SAR satellite, was launched by NASA in 1978, many InSAR missions have been completed, are in progress, or will be launched soon. These include the current GF-3 and Advanced Land Observing Satellite 2 (ALOS-2) SAR satellites and the nearfuture COSMO/Skymed 2nd Generation and Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission. This has created a new class of radar data that has evolved significantly in recent decades. In the meantime, hundreds of research articles have been published exploring algorithms for InSAR signal processing and demonstrating related applications across many Earth observation fields of interest. It is fair to say that InSAR has evolved from its initial development as a new and pioneering radar remote sensing technique into a mature technology that can provide crucial constraints for a broad and diverse range of Earth-science processes.