CHARACTERIZATION OF SAR MODE ALTIMETRY OVER INLAND WATER

摘要

Radar altimetry over the inland water domain is arndifficult topic that still requires a lot of human expertisernas well as manual editing and verifications. This isrnmainly due to the fact that inland water scenes arernhighly variable, both in space and time, which leads to arnmuch broader range of radar signatures than inrnoceanography. The remark is particularly true for LRMrnaltimetry and remains valid in many cases in SAR modern(SARM). In preparation for the operational Sentinel-3rnmission and to better benefit from the improved SARMrnalong-track resolution it is required to:rn1. better characterize the SARM IndividualrnEchoes, Multi-Look Stacks, 20Hz waveformsrnas well as the Range Integrated Power (RIP)rnover the inland water domain,rn2. step toward processing schemes that accountrnfor the actual content of the illuminated scene.rnIn this work, we introduce an automated technique tornassess the water fraction within the Beam-limitedrnDoppler footprint through its intersection area of with arnwater mask. This framework opens up new ways towardrnthe automated characterization and processing ofrnaltimetry data based on regularly updated water masks.