Advanced SAR Interferometry Methods for Ground Displacement Estimation from Spaceborne and Airborne Platforms

dc.contributor.advisorLee, Hyongki
dc.contributor.committeeMemberShrestha, Ramesh L.
dc.contributor.committeeMemberGlennie, Craig L.
dc.contributor.committeeMemberLu, Zhong
dc.contributor.committeeMemberJung, Hahn Chul
dc.creatorCao, Ning
dc.creator.orcid0000-0003-2880-8565
dc.date.accessioned2018-07-17T17:22:57Z
dc.date.available2018-07-17T17:22:57Z
dc.date.createdMay 2016
dc.date.issued2016-05
dc.date.submittedMay 2016
dc.date.updated2018-07-17T17:22:57Z
dc.description.abstractInterferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) is a powerful technique to monitor ground deformation phenomena, such as landslides, ground subsidence, seismological activities, and volcano dynamics. In this dissertation, two major problems of the current advanced InSAR techniques are described and corresponding approaches are proposed to solve them. Among various multitemporal InSAR techniques, persistent (or permanent) scatterer InSAR (PSInSAR) has been widely used in a variety of cases due to its high accuracy and resistance to temporal and spatial decorrelations. One major drawback of the PSInSAR technique is the low spatial density of PSs, especially over non-urban areas without man-made structures. A Phase-Decomposition-based PSInSAR (PD-PSInSAR) method is developed in this dissertation to improve the coherence and spatial density of measurement points by processing the distributed scatterer (DS) dominated by two or more scattering mechanisms. PD-PSInSAR performs eigendecomposition on the coherence matrix in order to estimate the phases corresponding to the different scattering mechanisms, and then implements these estimated phases in conventional PSInSAR process. An important procedure in DS interferometry is the phase triangulation (PT). In this study, the mathematical framework for PT algorithms is proposed. This dissertation introduces two modified PT algorithms and analyzes the mathematical relations between five different PT methods. The analysis shows that these five PT methods share very similar mathematical forms with different weight values. The proposed mathematical framework supports improved understanding and advanced estimation methods for the use of PT algorithms in DS interferometry. Another major drawback of traditional InSAR is that only the deformation along the line-of-sight (LOS) direction can be detected. In order to estimate the deformation in the along-track direction, a time-domain along-track SAR interferometry (TAI) technique is proposed. Compared with existing multiple-aperture SAR interferometry (MAI) methods, the proposed technique utilizes the full aperture to generate single-look complex images, and results in higher SNR and along-track resolution. In the last part of the dissertation, a case study of Slumgullion landslide is performed to demonstrate the potentials and challenges of airborne InSAR as well as the possible solutions to improve the precision of the derived deformation measurements.
dc.description.departmentCivil and Environmental Engineering, Department of
dc.format.digitalOriginborn digital
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf
dc.identifier.citationPortions of this document have appeared in: Cao, Ning, Hyongki Lee, and Hahn Chul Jung. "A phase-decomposition-based PSInSAR processing method." IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing 54, no. 2 (2016): 1074-1090. DOI: 10.1109/TGRS.2015.2473818; and in: Cao, Ning, Hyongki Lee, and Hahn Chul Jung. "Mathematical framework for phase-triangulation algorithms in distributed-scatterer interferometry." IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters 12, no. 9 (2015): 1838-1842. DOI: 10.1109/LGRS.2015.2430752.
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10657/3277
dc.language.isoeng
dc.rightsThe author of this work is the copyright owner. UH Libraries and the Texas Digital Library have their permission to store and provide access to this work. UH Libraries has secured permission to reproduce any and all previously published materials contained in the work. Further transmission, reproduction, or presentation of this work is prohibited except with permission of the author(s).
dc.subjectInSAR
dc.subjectSynthetic aperture radar (SAR)
dc.subjectDeformation mesurement
dc.subjectDifferential interferometric synthetic aperture
dc.subjectRadar (DInSAR)
dc.subjectPersistent
dc.subjectScattering
dc.subjectInterferometry
dc.titleAdvanced SAR Interferometry Methods for Ground Displacement Estimation from Spaceborne and Airborne Platforms
dc.type.dcmiText
dc.type.genreThesis
thesis.degree.collegeCullen College of Engineering
thesis.degree.departmentCivil and Environmental Engineering, Department of
thesis.degree.disciplineGeosensing Systems
thesis.degree.grantorUniversity of Houston
thesis.degree.levelDoctoral
thesis.degree.nameDoctor of Philosophy

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