IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine - March 2020 - 6

FROM THE GUEST EDITORS
BY MENGDAO XING, VITO PASCAZIO, AND HANWEN YU

A Special Issue on Synthetic
Aperture Radar Interferometry

S

ynthetic aperture radar (SAR) interferometry (InSAR) provides the unique ability to quantitatively
map Earth's elevation and surface deformation with
high spatial resolution and precision. For this reason, it
is used in many remote sensing applications (e.g., landslides, wetland water-level observation, and mining subsidence). Since Seasat-A, the very first SAR satellite, was
launched by NASA in 1978, many InSAR missions have
been completed, are in progress, or will be launched
soon. These include the current GF-3 and Advanced Land
Observing Satellite 2 (ALOS-2) SAR satellites and the nearfuture COSMO/Skymed 2nd Generation and Surface Water
and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission. This has created
a new class of radar data that has evolved significantly in
recent decades. In the meantime, hundreds of research
articles have been published exploring algorithms for
InSAR signal processing and demonstrating related applications across many Earth observation fields of interest. It is fair to say that InSAR has evolved from its initial
development as a new and pioneering radar remote
sensing technique into a mature technology that can
provide crucial constraints for a broad and diverse range
of Earth-science processes.
This is the first of two special issues of IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine focused on InSAR,
comprising 12 articles in total (the first seven in this issue and the following five scheduled for the June issue;
all are now available in IEEE Xplore). The articles cover
various InSAR signal processing techniques and applications in Earth science, and contributions came from
researchers in several different countries. All of the articles were selected through a two-step process in which
manuscripts were invited only following the positive review of a white paper. To foster collaboration among the
science, technology, and education communities within
the InSAR remote sensing field and attract a cross-disDigital Object Identifier 10.1109/MGRS.2020.2965784
Date of current version: 6 March 2020

6

ciplinary readership, we instructed authors to balance
scientific depth and broader knowledge dissemination.
We open the special issue with four review articles focusing on InSAR-based deformation-monitoring techniques; these are often considered "black boxes" that
are widely used but (sometimes) poorly understood by
budding researchers. These four articles aim to dispel
the magic behind the black box. The first, "Paradigm
Changes in Surface-Motion Estimation From SAR" reviews the methodological development in surface motion estimation based on the authors' experience in
the Dragon research project, a collaboration between
the European Space Agency and the National Remote
Sensing Center of China. The second article, "A Review
of Time-Series Interferometric SAR Techniques," summarizes time-series InSAR techniques and their applications, introducing the development and basic principles of these techniques. The authors also classify many
current time-series InSAR techniques from different
perspectives, providing readers with a comprehensive
understanding of the various methods available. The
main objective of the third article, "Ground-Based Differential Interferometry SAR," is to illustrate theoretical
issues and methodologies related to ground-based differential InSAR (GB-DInSAR), which use the SAR image phase to realize noncontact deformation inversion
with submillimeter precision. In particular, the authors
provide an application example of GB-DInSAR for
monitoring the Geheyan Dam, located in Qingjiang,
Hubei Province, China. "Use of SAR/InSAR in Mining Deformation Monitoring, Parameter Inversion,
and Forward Predictions" provides a comprehensive
review of important technical contributions recently
made in InSAR-based 1D and 2D mining deformation
monitoring, 3D mining displacement reconstruction,
mechanical parameter inversion, and forward prediction. The pros and cons of these methods are analyzed
to provide general guidance in choosing a suitable approach in practice.
IEEE GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING MAGAZINE

MARCH 2020
IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine - March 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine - March 2020
