Fusion of radar data to extract 3-dimensional objects LDRD final report

Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (IFSAR) is a very promising technology for remote mapping of 3-Dimensional objects. In particular, 3-D maps of urban areas are extremely important to a wide variety of users, both civilian and military. However, 3-D maps produced by traditional optical stereo (stereogrammetry) techniques can be quite expensive to obtain, and accurate urban maps can only be obtained with a large amount of human-intensive interpretation work. IFSAR has evolved over the last decade as a mapping technology that promises to eliminate much of the human-intensive work in producing elevation maps. However, IFSAR systems have only been robustly demonstrated in non-urban areas, and have not traditionally been able to produce data with enough detail to be of general use in urban areas. Sandia Laboratories Twin Otter IFSAR was the first mapping radar system with the proper parameter set to provide sufficiently detailed information in a large number of urban areas. The goal of this LDRD was to fuse previously unused information derived from IFSAR data in urban areas that can be used to extract accurate digital elevation models (DEMs) over wide areas without intensive human interaction