Optimum absolute phase retrieval in three-element SAR interferometer

The author discusses absolute (in general, reduced-ambiguity) phase retrieval in a three-antenna synthetic aperture radar interferometer for topographic mapping. A model-based estimation technique is proposed, which produces optimal spatial processing of the data from the different baselines to obtain an accurate absolute phase (and hence terrain height) estimate. Simulated performance analysis is carried out, and comparison with conventional single-baseline interferometry and a non-model-based multibaseline technique is made