DEM generation by using COSMO-SkyMed tandem pairs and Weather Models

The paper investigates the potentialities of the COSMO/SkyMed (CSK) constellation for ground elevation measurement through conventional and multi-temporal SAR Interferometry (InSAR), with particular attention devoted to the impact of the improved spatial resolution with respect to the previous SAR sensors. The Atmospheric Phase Screen (APS) is well-known to be the main source of errors for accurate topographic mapping through SAR interferometry, in case of monostatic sensors. Different strategies can be adopted to filter out this signal, ranging from the exploitation of the well-known spatial and temporal statistics of the APS to the estimation of independent APS measurements through Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) models. Their feasibility and the achievable accuracies are discussed here.