Application of interferometry in cultivated areas using ERS-1/2 data

This paper presents an study of the radar interferometry in cultivated areas in frame of the project ERS -1/2 Agricultural Monitoring Experiment in Entre Rios, Argentina. The objective of the project is to obtain accurate and updated information on agricultural production being able to take decisions in the different policies of the agricultural administration. The project is divided in three areas: remote sensing in charge of AGF/DLR in Germany, GIS in charge of UNER (University of Entre Rios) and CONAE and field work carried out by UNER, both in Argentine. For this work SLC ERS data acquired at 1st and 2nd June 1996 (tandem mission) have been used. The data integration and comparison have been made in a previous selected test area and aided with ground truth data acquired simultaneously with the satellite acquisition times. The interferometric process have been made at the Department of the Theory of the Signal and Communications at the UPC in Barcelona with a for this working group development software. This work has been made to study the application and effectiveness of the inteferometry in a rather flat and total cultivated area. First a coherency image have been made using precise orbits information,next the corresponding interferogram and the flat Earth corrections have been made, then the phase unwrapping process and finally a digital elevation model of the test area up to the river coasts have been produced. The final results have been analyzed taken into account the agricultural activities and the ground truth at the acquisition times