Abstract
The new full polarimetric modes of Radarsat-2 were evaluated for digital elevation model (DEM) generation using stereo-radargrammetry with Toutin's three-dimensional physical model. The fusion of the four polarimetric bands was thus addressed to improve the resulting DEMs. The stereo-radargrammetric DEMs were evaluated with 20 cm accuracy Lidar elevation data. Results on a test site north of Québec City, Canada showed a good accuracy: 5 m and 6–7 m (1σ) for the horizontal positioning and the elevation (on bare soils), respectively. However, the best results were obtained when the four polarimetric bands were fused with the restoration method and the second best results (around 5% worse) were obtained with the SPAN method (total power of the four intensity bands).
Acknowledgements
This research work was financed by the Science and Operational Applications Research program between the CSA and MDA, by the Government Related Initiative Program of CSA, and supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). The ESS contribution number is: 20090339.
Notes
Notes
1. An advanced version of 3D Toutin's radargrammetric model has been recently developed to take advantage of the more precise orbit determination of Radarsat-2 since September 2008.
2. With the advanced version of 3D Toutin's radargrammetric model, no GCP is required now.