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Automated matching of pairs of SIR-B images for elevation mappingDuring the SIR-B mission in October 1984, a significant number of overlapping synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images of various ground areas was collected. This has offered the first opportunity to perform stereo analyses on images from space that cover large ground areas to determine elevation information. This paper presents the preliminary results of an investigation to obtain elevation data from stereo pairs of SIR-B images. First, the accuracy with which elevation information can be derived from SIR-B image pairs is evaluated theoretically. It is shown that elevation accuracy is a function of the slant range resolution, the incidence angles with which the stereo pair is obtained, the accuracies in spacecraft state estimation, and determination of corresponding pixels in the stereo pair. Next, a hierarchical method is developed to match the corresponding pixels. This method involves iterative removal of local distortions and correlations of pairs of local neighborhoods in the two images. Since it is necessary to perform the matching at every pixel in the image, it is very computationally intensive. Therefore, it has been implemented on the Massively Parallel Processor (MPP) at the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC). The MPP's speed permits two iterations of this technique to operate on a pair of 512 x 512 images within 7 s. Results of applying this algorithm of SIR-B images of Mount Shasta, CA, are shown. The matching algorithm performs well in regions of the image with significant features. An approximate elevation image derived from the matching process corresponds to published topographic map data, except for certain obvious discontinuities.
Document ID
19860059418
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
Authors
Ramapriyan, H. K.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Strong, J. P.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Murray, C. W., Jr.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Hung, Y.
(Maryland, University College Park, United States)
Date Acquired
August 12, 2013
Publication Date
July 1, 1986
Publication Information
Publication: IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing
Volume: GE-24
ISSN: 0196-2892
Subject Category
Earth Resources And Remote Sensing
Accession Number
86A44156
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other

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