Microwave Remote

Sensing

Dr. R.D. Garg

garg_fce@iitr.ernet.in

1
Principles of Microwave Remote Sensing
 Radar Image

ERS-1

2
Principles of Microwave Remote Sensing
 Introduction
Analyzing the information collected by the sensors that
operate in the microwave portion of the electromagnetic
spectrum is called as Microwave Remote Sensing.

1mm to 1m

These longer waves have capability of penetrating

through the clouds thus overcoming the atmospheric
effects

Microwave reflection (backscattering) - in active mode

emission - in passive mode,
3
Principles of Microwave Remote Sensing
 Advantages over Optical Remote Sensing
• Time independent.
• Weather independent.
• Sensitive to moisture in soil, vegetation and snow.
• Enhancement of surface roughness / relief.
• Penetration of soil and vegetation cover.
• Ability to collect data which are far away from flight path.

Valuable for timely monitoring of soil moisture, crop/

vegetation, snow cover, geological features, coastal zone,
urban extent, man made targets, ocean wind vector, wave
spectra, wave height and atmospheric parameters

4
Principles of Microwave Remote Sensing
 EM Spectrum

5
Principles of Microwave Remote Sensing
 Imaging Radar system

Real Aperture Radar (RAR) System

6
Principles of Microwave Remote Sensing
 Radar pulse propagation and reflection

7
Principles of Microwave Remote Sensing
 Definitions
Depression Angle (β) (γ)
angle between vertical antenna
to the ground and transmitted
ray to the point of incidence.
Look Angle (φ)(elevation
angle)
angle between vertical of the
antenna to the ground
transmitted ray at the point of
incidence.

8
Principles of Microwave Remote Sensing
 Incidence Angle (θ)
angle between radar line of sight and local vertical
with respect to the geoid. It is a major factor
influencing the radar backscatter.

Azimuth Angle
angle between the azimuth direction, which is
parallel to the flight line, and the range direction,
which is perpendicular to the flight line or across
track
o
direction. In most cases azimuth angle is
90 .

9
Principles of Microwave Remote Sensing
 Slant range resolution
(2)

SRr = PL / 2 = c x τ / 2
SRr = slant range resolution

(1) PL = c x τ
c = speed of light
τ = pulse duration
Principles of Microwave Remote Sensing
10
 Slant range resolution

Compressed in near range, but not in far-range

Principles of Microwave Remote Sensing
11
 Range resolution (Rr)
Rr = SRr / cos γ
= PL / 2 cos γ
= c x τ / 2 cos γ

Compressed in near range, but not in far-range

Principles of Microwave Remote Sensing
12
 Azimuth Resolution
Antenna

The azimuth resolution

depends on
(1) the beam width and β (beam width)

(2) the slant distance

from the antenna.

Azimuth resolution
Principles of Microwave Remote Sensing
13
 Azimuth Resolution (Ra)
Ra = 0.7 Sλ/D
where
S = slant range
λ = wavelength
D = antenna length

S=8 km
λ=0.86 cm
D= 490 cm
Ra=9.8 m
20 m

S=20 km
Ra=24.6 m
Principles of Microwave Remote Sensing
14
 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR)

The longer the antenna - the higher the (azimuth) resolution

Principles of Microwave Remote Sensing
15
 SAR (an example)

WALL

Principles of Microwave Remote Sensing

16
 Relief distortions

Layover-foreshortening-shadow
Principles of Microwave Remote Sensing
17
 Speckle noise & interference
Speckle is the random noise in Radar images due
to interference phenomenon.

Principles of Microwave Remote Sensing

18
 Speckle noise & interference
intensity

distance

The measured intensity is the sum of numerous returns

Principles of Microwave Remote Sensing
19
 Filtering speckle

Original Image Filtered image

Principles of Microwave Remote Sensing

20
 Speckle filtering

Before After
Principles of Microwave Remote Sensing
21
 RADAR RETURN AND IMAGE SIGNATURES

Energy reflected from the terrain to radar antenna is

called radar return.

Following parameters strongly affect the radar return-

a) System properties
i) Wavelength / frequency
ii) Polarization
iii) Incidence angle

b) Terrain properties
i) Dielectric constant
ii) Surface roughness
iii) Feature orientation
Principles of Microwave Remote Sensing
22
 Radar Wavelength / Frequency
Standard bandwidths used and their letter codes are -
Band code Wavelength (λ) in cm Frequency(ν) GHz
Ka 0.8 – 1.1 40 – 26.5
K 1.1 – 1.7 26.5 – 18.0
X 2.4 – 3.8 12.5 – 8.0
C 3.8 – 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 – 100.0 1.0 – 0.3

Radar return mainly depends on the wavelength or the frequency

used. Shorter wave bands have atmospheric effects because of
the interaction with the atmospheric water vapour. Longer wave
bands comparatively penetrate through the skin of the earth
surface.
Principles of Microwave Remote Sensing
23
 Polarisation
Resolving the EMR into its horizontal and vertical component

VV
HH
VH
HV

Principles of Microwave Remote Sensing

24
 Polarization
HH image and VV image - like polarized images
VH image and HV image - cross-polarized
images
A comparison of like and cross-polarized returns
might reveal differences leading to terrain
identification.
Water and trees appear same in like and cross-
polarized images while swamps appear
brighter in like polarized and darker in cross-
polarized imagery. Grasslands appear darker
in like polarized image and brighter in cross-
polarized image.

Principles of Microwave Remote Sensing

25
 Polarised images
SLAR system
Oklahoma
Scale 1:160,000
K band (3.2cm)

HH polarization

HV polarization
Principles of Microwave Remote Sensing
26
 Polarised images
SLAR system
California
Scale 1:75,000
K band (3.2cm)

HH polarization

HV polarization
Principles of Microwave Remote Sensing
27
 Incidence angle
Incidence angle is defined as the angle between
the radar beam and a perpendicular to the
surface. For flat terrain incidence angle is same
as the look angle.
Rough surfaces produce relatively uniform
radar return irrespective of the incidence angle.
Smooth surfaces give a stronger return at very
high depression angles (near vertical) but little
or no return occurs at lower depression angles.

Principles of Microwave Remote Sensing

28
 The di-electric constant
The electrical properties of matter influence the
interaction with electromagnetic energy and are called
the complex dielectric constant.
Dielectric constant can be stated as the ‘ability of the
material to get depolarized when electromagnetic field is
applied’.
If the material has very high dielectric constant, it will
depolarize the incident EMR better and hence the
intensity of received signal will also be more which gives
rise to brighter tone.
Dielectric constant for some common targets e.g. water,
dry rocks & soils, metals, vacuum is 87.8; 3 to 8; 2 to 5;
1.0 respectively.
Principles of Microwave Remote Sensing
29
 Surface Roughness
Surfaces can be either smooth or rough or
intermediate.
Smooth surfaces reflect all the energy away from
the antenna and will be resulted in dark tone.
Rough surfaces diffusely scatter the energy
equally in all directions irrespective of the angle
of incidence.
Intermediate surfaces scatter the energy
diffusely but not equally since a portion of
energy is specularly reflected and the rest
diffusely scattered.

Principles of Microwave Remote Sensing

30
 Surface Roughness
Rayleigh criterion considers a surface to be smooth if
h < λ / 8 sin γ
where, h = height of surface irregularities
λ = radar wavelength
γ = grazing angle (angle between terrain
slope and incident radar wave)
and defines the rough surface if
h > λ / 8 sin γ
Peake and Oliver's modified Rayleigh criterion defines
the smooth, rough as well as intermediate surfaces -
h < λ / 25 sin γ - smooth
h > λ / 4.4 sin γ - rough
λ / 4.4 sin γ < h > λ / 25 Sin γ - intermediate surfaces
Principles of Microwave Remote Sensing
31
 Wind influence (surface roughness)

Smooth water surface (rivers) Rough water surface (rivers)

causing low backscatter causing relatively high backscatter
Principles of Microwave Remote Sensing
32
 Feature Orientation
Orientation of the linear features with respect to
the look direction affects the Radar return
If the feature is oriented perpendicular to the
look direction then the identification of the same
becomes possible since it gives strong return.
If the linear feature is oriented parallel to the
look direction, then identification of the same
becomes very difficult because of the weak
return and poor contrast with the neighbouring
features.
Principles of Microwave Remote Sensing
33
 Multi-temporal colour composites

Date 1

Date 2

Date 3

Principles of Microwave Remote Sensing

34
Comparison of sensors - Winchester, GB

Landsat - Pan Landsat - FCC

ERS - multi temporal ERS - multi temporal - filtered

Principles of Microwave Remote Sensing
35
 Operational Radar Satellites in orbit
ERS-2 (European, ESA)

Repeat pass: 35 days

Sensor C band, VV polarization
Scene size 100 x 100 km
Resolution (20x4) or 30m after resampling
Incidence angle 23°

RADARSAT (Canadian, private)

Repeat pass: 24 days

Sensor X band, HH polarization
Scene size 50 x 50 km up to 500 x 500 km
Resolution 8m – 100m
Incidence angle 10 - 59°

Principles of Microwave Remote Sensing

36
 Radarsat

Principles of Microwave Remote Sensing

37
 Stereo Viewing

z Radarsat capable
of viewing same
location from
different positions

z Gives classic
stereo capability

Principles of Microwave Remote Sensing

38
 Interpretation - applications
Oil spills

Flood damage

Topo & roughness

maps Agriculture
Principles of Microwave Remote Sensing
39
Classification of multi-temporal ERS

Principles of Microwave Remote Sensing

40
 Principles of Microwave Remote Sensing
41