Microwave Remote Sensing: Rucha Joshi (M.Tech) Assistant Professor Geoinformatics Division University of Pune

MICROWAVE REMOTE SENSING
Rucha Joshi (M.Tech)

Assistant Professor
Geoinformatics Division
University of Pune.

EM SPECTRUM
Microwave region
Millimeter wave
30 GHz 300 GHz.

OR
1mm to 1m
MICROWAVE REMOTE SENSING: PRINCIPLES
AND APPLICATIONS.
Advantages
Day/night coverage.
All weather except during
periods of heavy rain.
Penetrates atmosphere under
virtually all conditions
Microwave reflections/
emissions from earth
materials bear no direct
relationship to counterparts in
visible or thermal portions.

Disadvantages
Data are difficult to interpret.
Coarse resolution except for
SAR.

4
ADVANTAGES OF RADAR
All weather, day or night
Some areas of Earth are persistently cloud
covered
Penetrates clouds, vegetation, dry soil, dry
snow
Sensitive to water content, surface roughness
Can measure waves in water
Sensitive to polarization and frequency
Interferometry (later) using 2 receiving
antennas
5
DISADVANTAGES OF RADAR
Penetrates clouds, vegetation, dry soil, dry snow
Signal is integrated over a depth range and a variety
of materials
Sensitive to water content, surface roughness
Small amounts of water affect signal
Hard to separate the volume response from the
surface response
Sensitive to polarization and frequency
Many choices for instrument, expensive to cover
range of possibilities
The math can be formidable
6
ACTIVE AND PASSIVE REMOTE SENSING
Passive: uses natural energy, either reflected sunlight or emitted
thermal or microwave radiation
Passive Microwave Sensors are radiometers (Multi frequency
scanning/ imaging radiometers, atmospheric sounder).

Active: sensor creates its own energy
Transmitted toward Earth
Interacts with atmosphere and/or surface
Reflects back toward sensor (backscatter)
Active microwave sensors include SLR/SLAR, SAR, Active
Microwave Imager (AMI), Scatterometer (SLR), Altimeter, Rain
Mapping Radar, etc.
ADVANCED MULTI SCANNING/ IMAGING RADIOMETER
ATMOSPHERIC SOUNDER
9
WIDELY USED ACTIVE REMOTE SENSING
SYSTEMS
Active microwave (Radar)
long-wavelength microwaves (1-100cm)
recording the amount of energy back-scattered from the
terrain
Lidar
short-wavelength laser light (e.g., 0.90 m)
recording the light back-scattered from the terrain or
atmosphere
Sonar
sound waves through a water column
recording the amount of energy back-scattered from the
water column or the bottom
10
MICROWAVE BAND CODES
Band Wavelength, cm Frequency, GHz
Mid-IR
(3-5)10
4
100,000-60,000
Thermal IR
(8-15) 10
4
37,500-20,000
K
a
0.75-1.18 40.0-26.5
K 1.19-1.67 26.5-18.0
K
u
1.67-2.4 18.0-12.5
X 2.4-3.8 12.5-8.0
C 3.9-7.5 8.0-4.0
S 7.5-15.0 4.0-2.0
L 15.0-30.0 2.0-1.0
P 30.0-100 1.0-0.3
Unusual names
are an artifact of
the original
secret work on
radar remote
sensing in World
War II
SIR-C/X-SAR
IMAGES OF
RONDONIA,
BRAZIL
April 10, 1994
SENDING AND RECEIVING A PULSE OF
MICROWAVE RADIATION
transmitted pulse
backscattered pulse
ant enna
Transmitt er
Duplexer
sends and
receives
Pulse
Generat or
CRT Display or
Digital Recorder
Receiver
b.
a.
antenna
HOW IT WORKS
Pulses of active microwave
electromagnetic energy
illuminate strips of the
terrain at right angles
(orthogonal) to the direction
of travel
called the range or look
direction
The terrain illuminated
nearest the aircraft is the
near-range
The farthest point of
terrain illuminated is the
far-range

HOW IT WORKS (CONT.)
Aircraft or satellite travels in a straight line: the azimuth direction
Pulses of microwave electromagnetic energy illuminate strips of the
terrain orthogonal to direction of travel: the range or look direction
Terrain illuminated nearest the sensor in the line of sight is the near-
range
The farthest point of terrain illuminated by the pulse of energy is the
far-range
Generally, objects that trend (or strike) in a direction orthogonal
(perpendicular) to the range or look direction are enhanced much
more than those objects in the terrain that lie parallel to the look
direction
Consequently, linear features that are imperceptible in a radar image
using one look direction may appear bright in another radar image with
a different look direction.
NOMENCLATURE
nadir
azimuth flight direction
look direction
range (near and far)
depression angle ()
incidence angle ()
altitude above-ground-
level, H
polarization

DEPRESSION ANGLES AND INCIDENCE
ANGLES
Depression angle (): between a horizontal
plane extending out from the sensor and the
electromagnetic pulse of energy from the
antenna to a specific point on the ground
Incidence angle (u): between the radar pulse
and the normal to Earths surface
When surface is flat, u = 90
Polarization
HH, VV are like polarized
HV, VH are cross polarized
E
E
Linear Elliptical Circular
y
y y
E
x
x
x
POLARIZATION
1
st
letter is
transmitted
polarization,
2
nd
is received
Can have
VV, HH
(like)
HV, VH
(cross)

POLARIZATION WITH VISIBLE
LIGHT
In this case, incoming
radiation (sunlight) is not
polarized (or is polarized
in both directions)
Vertically polarized light
is reflected from surface
At this view angle,
horizontally polarized
light is not reflected
So horizontal filter
allows us to see the
bottom

POLARIZATION
WITH RADAR
a.
b.
look direction
N
K
a
- band, HH polarization
K
a
- band, HV polarization
VARIABILITY WITH
LOOK DIRECTION
a.
b.
look direction
X - band, HH polarization look direction
s
X - band, HH polarization
RANGE RESOLUTION
( )
pulse length speed of light
2cos 2cos depression angle
r
c
R
t

= =
AZIMUTH RESOLUTION
slant range wavelength
antenna length
a
S
R
L

=
RADAR IMAGE
FORESHORTENING,
LAYOVER, SHADOW
Geometric
distortions in all
radar imagery
FORESHORTENIN
G
LAYOVER
LAYOVER
Extreme case of
foreshortening,
when incidence
angle is less than
slope angle
toward radar (i.e.
<)
cannot be
corrected
got to be
careful in the
mountains
SHADOW

SHADOW
When slope away from radar is steeper than the
depression angle, i.e. >
Foreshortening Layover Shadow
Geometric Effects
SPECKLE
Grainy salt-and-pepper pattern in
radar imagery
Caused by coherent nature of
the radar wave, which causes
random constructive and
destructive interference, and
hence random bright and dark
areas in a radar image
Reduced by multiple looks
processing separate portions of
an aperture and recombining
these portions so that
interference does not occur

SYNTHETIC APERTURE RADAR (SAR)
Major advance in radar remote sensing to
improve azimuth resolution by synthesizing a
long antenna
Recall
slant range wavelength
antenna length
a
S
R
L

=
SYNTHETIC APERTURE RADAR (SAR)

38
RADAR EQUATION
( )
2 2
3
4
4
power received
power transmitted
antenna gain in direction of target
range distance from transmitter to target
backscatter area of target
wavelength
t t
r
r
t
t
PG
P
R
P
P
G
R
o
t
o
=
39
RADAR BACKSCATTER
COEFFICIENT
Primary signal of interest
Percentage of electromagnetic energy
reflected back to the radar from within a
resolution cell
Depends on terrain parameters like
geometry, surface roughness, moisture
content, and
radar system parameters (wavelength,
depression angle, polarization, etc.)
0
A
o
o =
ROUGHNESS
Smooth
25sin
Rough
4.4sin
h
h
s
>
NILE RIVER, SUDAN
Space
shuttle
color
VNIR
SIR-C Color
Composite:
Red: C-band HV
Green: L-band
HV
Blue: L-band HH
SOURCES OF
RADAR
BACKSCATTERI
NG FROM A
VEGETATION
CANOPY
Subscripts
t trunk
s soil
c leaves
m multiple
TYPES OF
SCATTERING
FROM A PINE
STAND
STRENGTH OF SCATTERING FROM A PINE STAND
DEPENDS ON FREQUENCY

Radarsart
2
2003
HH,VV,
HV, VH
Advanced Land Observing Satellite
(ALOS) 2004
PALSAR (Phased array SAR)

PRISM
LightSAR (USA & Germany
L- and X-band
All Polarizations
RISAT (Radar Imaging Satellite)
C-band in 3 modes
Cryosat
Radar Altimeter Mission
Determine the variation in the thickness of the Ice
sheets to be planned to Launch 2004
Range Resolution
4.6 cm, accuracy
1 or 2 cm
Launch year - 2006
Frequency = 5.35 GHz
Resolution HRS 1-2 m with
Swath 10 x 10 km, single/dual
polarization
FRS-1 mode 3-6 m with swath
30 km, single/dual polarization
FRS-2 model 9-12, with swath
30 km, Quad polarization
MRS/CRS mode 25- 50 m, with
swath 120/240 km, single/quad
Indian RISAT SAR
RADARSAT-2 (LAUNCHED DEC 2007)
C-band radar (5.4 GHz) with HH,
VV, HV, and VH polarizations
51
SIR-C/X-SAR WEB SITE AT JPL
SIR-C
Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C (following SIR-A
in 1981 and SIR-B in 1984)
X-SAR
X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (built by
Germans)
Flew on Shuttle, 2 10-day missions in 1994
Thank you!!!

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MICROWAVE REMOTE SENSING

Rucha Joshi (M.Tech)

SYNTHETIC APERTURE RADAR (SAR)

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