• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.36 no.5_1
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• pp.847-860
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• 2020

The 2-pass DInSAR (Differential Interferometric SAR) processing steps for DEM generation consist of the co-registration of SAR image pair, interferogram generation, phase unwrapping, calculation of DEM errors, and geocoding, etc. It requires complicated steps, and the accuracy of data processing at each step affects the performance of the finally generated DEM. In this study, we developed an improved method for enhancing the performance of the DEM generation method based on the 2-pass DInSAR technique of TanDEM-X bistatic SAR images was developed. The developed DEM generation method is a method that can significantly reduce both the DEM error in the unwrapped phase image and that may occur during geocoding step. The performance analysis of the developed algorithm was performed by comparing the vertical accuracy (Root Mean Square Error, RMSE) between the existing method and the newly proposed method using the ground control point (GCP) generated from GPS survey. The vertical accuracy of the DInSAR-based DEM generated without correction for the unwrapped phase error and geocoding error is 39.617 m. However, the vertical accuracy of the DEM generated through the proposed method is 2.346 m. It was confirmed that the DEM accuracy was improved through the proposed correction method. Through the proposed 2-pass DInSAR-based DEM generation method, the SRTM DEM error observed by DInSAR was compensated for the SRTM 30 m DEM (vertical accuracy 5.567 m) used as a reference. Through this, it was possible to finally create a DEM with improved spatial resolution of about 5 times and vertical accuracy of about 2.4 times. In addition, the spatial resolution of the DEM generated through the proposed method was matched with the SRTM 30 m DEM and the TanDEM-X 90m DEM, and the vertical accuracy was compared. As a result, it was confirmed that the vertical accuracy was improved by about 1.7 and 1.6 times, respectively, and more accurate DEM generation was possible with the proposed method. If the method derived in this study is used to continuously update the DEM for regions with frequent morphological changes, it will be possible to update the DEM effectively in a short time at low cost.