High Resolution SAR for Urban Areas Monitoring

Abstract: Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) represents today one of the most powerful instruments in monitoring the growth of urban centers and its relevant management. New upcoming SAR sensors will soon supply high resolution images with a consequent increase in the information content. This thesis contributes originally to the topic above, ranging from the simulation to the post-processing of high resolution SAR data. In particular, an efficient SAR raw signal simulator for extended scenes is developed for the hybrid stripmap-spotlight configuration. Moreover, a new model-based approach for geometrical and electromagnetic information retrieval from SAR images of urban areas is defined, widely discussed and finally tested on real high resolution SAR images