MEASUREMENTS OF INTERTIDAL FLAT TOPOGRAPHY USING A LONG-BASELINE AIRBORNE INTERFEROMETRIC SAR

Intertidal flats are productive and rapidly changing places. However, these places are facing many environmental challenges related to climate change and human-induced impacts. Topographic change due to sedimentation or erosion in intertidal flats can be the key indicator for recognizing these environmental changes. The intertidal flats usually have small topographic variations (less than 5m) and high-moistured soil surfaces (greater than 50%). The conventional SAR interferometric techniques cannot be used for generating DEMs in these intertidal flats. In this study, we developed a long-baseline airborne interferometric SAR (InSAR) system that has small ambiguity height and collected airborne InSAR data in Jebu intertidal flat, west coast of Korean peninsula. The constructed topographies using the long-baseline airborne InSAR were compared with TanDEM-X DEM (acquired during long-baseline mission phase) and GPS-RTK measurements.