CMRT09

Stilla, Uwe

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Persistent identifier:: 856955019

Author:: Stilla, Uwe

Title:: CMRT09

Sub title:: object extraction for 3D city models, road databases, and traffic monitoring ; concepts, algorithms and evaluation ; Paris, France, September 3 - 4, 2009 ; [joint conference of ISPRS working groups III/4 and III/5]

Scope:: X, 234 Seiten

Year of publication:: 2009

Place of publication:: Lemmer

Publisher of the original:: GITC

Identifier (digital):: 856955019

Illustration:: Illustrationen, Diagramme, Karten

Language:: English

Usage licence:: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Publisher of the digital copy:: Technische Informationsbibliothek Hannover

Place of publication of the digital copy:: Hannover

Year of publication of the original:: 2016

Document type:: Monograph

Collection:: Earth sciences

Chapter

Title:: THEORETICAL ANALYSIS OF BUILDING HEIGHT ESTIMATION USING SPACEBORNE SAR-INTERFEROMETRY FOR RAPID MAPPING APPLICATIONS Stefan Hinz, Sarah Abelen

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

In: Stilla U, Rottensteiner F, Paparoditis N (Eds) CMRT09. IAPRS, Vol. XXXVIII, Part 3/W4 — Paris, France, 3-4 September, 2009 THEORETICAL ANALYSIS OF BUILDING HEIGHT ESTIMATION USING SPACE BORNE SAR-INTERFEROMETRY FOR RAPID MAPPING APPLICATIONS Stefan Hinz 1 , Sarah Abelen 2 'Institute of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, Univeristät Karlsruhe, Kaiserstr. 12, 76 128 Karlsruhe 2 Remote Sensing Technology, Technische Universität München, Arcisstr. 21,81 333 München Stefan.Hinz@ipf.uni-karlsruhe.de Commission III, WG 5 KEY WORDS: Space-borne Interferometrie SAR, Building Heights, TanDEM-X. CosmoSkymed ABSTRACT: The great potential of space-borne SAR images for semi- or fully-automatic mapping of topographic features has been shown by many approaches. While most of them focus on 2D mapping of topographic features, some preliminary research on the complex task of automatic delineation of 3D information in urban environments has been initiated in recent years. In this paper, we analyze the capabilities of new space-borne interferometric SAR missions - in particular the German TanDEM-X mission - with respect to their potential of deriving building heights. To this end, we summarize the mathematical framework and carry out a thorough analytical accuracy analysis involving various sensor and scene parameters. 1. INTRODUCTION The new class of space-borne high resolution SAR sensors such as TerraSAR-X, SAR-Lupe or Cosmo-SkyMed is able to provide SAR images of l-3m spatial resolution or even below in special spotlight modes. Naturally, the development of methods to automatically derive detailed cartographic information from this kind of data is a major issue driven by these missions. Since SAR is largely independent from illumination and weather conditions, it is furthermore an attractive imaging technology for acquiring area-wide information of regions hit by disasters such as floodings, landslides, or earthquakes. The great potential of space-borne SAR images for semi- or fully-automatic mapping of 2D topographic features has been shown by many encouraging approaches, e.g., (Negri et al., 2006; Frey & Butenuth, 2009) for delineation of roads and (Jäger et al. 2007; Hänsch & Hellwich, 2008) for classification of agricultural features, just to name few recent ones. The derivation of 3D features is however more difficult, since these current civilian space-borne systems have only limited interferometric capabilities. While the acquisition of along-track interferometric image pairs is possible by programming special RADAR imaging modes (e.g. DRA mode or Aperture Switching mode for TerraSAR-X (Runge et ah, 2006)) enabling the detection of moving objects (Suchandt et ah, 2008; Weihing et ah, 2008), none of the current civilian space systems is equipped with an across-track interferometer, which would provide the basis for deriving topographic heights (Bamler & Hartl, 1998; Cumming & Wong, 2005). The necessary across- track baseline is only given when forming an interferogram of two SAR acquisitions taken from the same orbit yet at different passes of the satellite, and thereby relying on the positional variation of the orbits. It is clear that the resulting interferograms suffer from decorrelation depending on temporal variability of the objects under investigation. This situation will change once TerraSAR-X will be accompaigned by a second, quasi-identical SAR satellite in late 2009, leading to the TanDEM-X mission. Both satellites will fly almost in parallel forming a helix-like orbit pair (Zink et ah 2006). This configuration allows to acquiring SAR image pairs with variable across-track geometry resulting in a significantly improved interferometric coherence. The great benefit of single pass across-track SAR interferometers has been intensively studied in the context of the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). Despite of the limited spatial resolution of SRTM data (approx. 25m), it was possible to compute a global digital elevation model with standardized height accuracy of few meters, see, e.g., the comprehensive overview given in (Rabus et ah, 2003). TanDEM-X will deliver high coherence interferometric data of the meter class. Although the mission is mainly designed to generate accurate digital elevation models satisfying HRTI-3 standards (Zink et ah, 2006), it can be expected that this kind of data opens up a much wider field for specialized methods for 3D mapping of topographic features. The automated derivation of building heights or even the detailed reconstruction of buildings is certainly an important application amongst these. Apart from the improved spatial resolution, a major difference between TanDEM-X and SRTM is the variable across-track baseline of TanDEM-X, whereas the baseline of SRTM was held quasi-constant due to the second antenna mounted at a 60m boom (and neglecting periodic baseline variations as consequence of thrusting). Hence, a thorough analysis of accuracy aspects of height estimation under the given flexibility of TanDEM-X is a key issue. Following questions should be answered by the analysis: Which accuracy level in terms of building height estimation can be reached with interferometric data as it will be provided by TanDEM-X? Is this accuracy sufficient to derive object specific information for rapid mapping in the context of crisis management? Such information may comprise, e.g., o the number of floors to estimate the amount of people living in a house o attached building parts of different height o the roof type (flat roof, saddle roof, etc.) How would the accuracy improve, if external data from GIS is included (e.g. digital building footprints)?

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