Data collection strategies for high quality multi-pass SAR CCD images

Multi-pass synthetic aperture radar coherent change detection (SAR CCD) is a coherent change detection technique using multiple images acquired along different flight tracks. The defining characteristic of multi-pass SAR CCD is the high detection probability under a certain false alarm probability. Changes are detected in areas of low coherence between SAR images. Unfortunately, low coherence can result from phenomenon other than changes such as the difference between passes. In order to reliably detect small changes of interest, false alarm rates should be driven down through means of acquiring and processing images interferometrically. In particular the image pair must be acquired with careful control of the multi-pass imaging geometries and collection time. In this paper, we propose some data collection strategies for high quality multi-pass SAR CCD, which include the space strategies and the time strategies. The space strategies include some constraint conditions of the imaging geometries such as baseline, terrain slope, grazing angle and squint angle. The time strategies include the choice of pass number and the time interval between different passes. The images used for multipass SAR CCD should be acquired in accordance with these strategies for better detection performance.