• 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.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.387-396
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• 2024

Most very high-resolution (VHR) satellite images provide rational polynomial coefficients (RPC) data to facilitate the transformation between ground coordinates and image coordinates. However, initial RPC often contains geometric errors, necessitating correction through matching with ground control points (GCPs). A GCP chip is a small image patch extracted from an orthorectified image together with height information of the center point, which can be directly used for geometric correction. Many studies have focused on area-based matching methods to accurately align GCP chips with VHR satellite images. In cases with seasonal differences or changed areas, edge-based algorithms are often used for matching due to the difficulty of relying solely on pixel values. However, traditional edge extraction algorithms,such as canny edge detectors, require appropriate threshold settings tailored to the spectral characteristics of satellite images. Therefore, this study utilizes deep learning-based edge information that is insensitive to the regional characteristics of satellite images for matching. Specifically,we use a pretrained pixel difference network (PiDiNet) to generate the edge maps for both satellite images and GCP chips. These edge maps are then used as input for normalized cross-correlation (NCC) and relative edge cross-correlation (RECC) to identify the peak points with the highest correlation between the two edge maps. To remove mismatched pairs and thus obtain the bias-compensated RPC, we iteratively apply the data snooping. Finally, we compare the results qualitatively and quantitatively with those obtained from traditional NCC and RECC methods. The PiDiNet network approach achieved high matching accuracy with root mean square error (RMSE) values ranging from 0.3 to 0.9 pixels. However, the PiDiNet-generated edges were thicker compared to those from the canny method, leading to slightly lower registration accuracy in some images. Nevertheless, PiDiNet consistently produced characteristic edge information, allowing for successful matching even in challenging regions. This study demonstrates that improving the robustness of edge-based registration methods can facilitate effective registration across diverse regions.