Publications

Small, D; Rohner, C; Miranda, N; Ruetschi, M; Schaepman, ME (2022). Wide-Area Analysis-Ready Radar Backscatter Composites. IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING, 60, 5201814.

Abstract
The benefits of composite products are well known to users of data from optical sensors: cloud-cleared composite reflectance or index products are commonly used as an analysis-ready data (ARD) layer. No analogous composite products are currently in widespread use that is based on spaceborne radar satellite backscatter signals. Here, we present a methodology to produce wide-area ARD composite backscatter images. They build on the existing heritage of geometrically and radiometrically terrain corrected level 1 products. By combining backscatter measurements of a single region seen from multiple satellite tracks (incl. ascending and descending), they are able to provide wide-area coverage with low latency. The analysis-ready composite backscatter maps provide flattened backscatter estimates that are geometrically and radiometrically corrected for slope effects. A mask layer annotating the local quality of the composite resolution is introduced. Multiple tracks are combined by weighting each observation by its local resolution, generating seamless wide-area backscatter maps suitable for applications ranging from wet snow monitoring to land cover classification or short-term change detection.

DOI:
10.1109/TGRS.2021.3055562

ISSN:
1558-0644