Test 2 Flashcards
(136 cards)
what does microwave have the ability to do?
measure the brightness temperature of the earth’s surface
What are the wavelengths of microwave?
1 cm to 1 m
Passive microwave has…
low energy and coarse spatial/ spectral resolution
Types of active microwave sensors
scatterometer and altimeter- Non-imaging Radar
Real Aperture Radar and synthetic aperture radar- Imaging Radar
What does a scatterometer do?
Coarse resolution, good for ocean surface, wind, and wave
What does an altimeter do?
Measure the height of the surface of the earth
What are the characteristics of Radar principles?
Radar Detection and Ranging
Microwave range
active system
high spatial resolution (same as optical)
day-night & all-weather capabilities
complementary to optical systems
How does RADAR work?
Radar sends pulses through the transmitter and the target reflects the echo which captured by the receiver
What does radar distinguish objects by?
They distance but when it looks Nadir, the same distance is on the right and left, this causes problems, leads to side looking geometry
How do you improve azimuth resolution?
a shorter wavelength pulse will result in improved azimuth resolution
The size of the antenna is inversely proportional to the size of the angular beam width (azimuth resolution)
synthetic aperture radar (SAR)
makes a relatively small antenna work like it is much larger, by taking advantage of the platform’s motion
What does radar measure
the ratio between the received electrical field over the field incident to that location on earth
What is the backscatter coefficient tell us?
amplitude information
Some ranges for backscattering
very high (>5db): man made objects, terrain slopes towards the radar, very rough surface, radar looks very steep
high backscatter (-10dB to 0dB): rough surface with dense vegetation
moderate backscatter (-20 to -10 dB): medium level of vegetation, agricultural crops, moderately rough surfaces
low backscatter (below -20 dB): smooth surface, water, road, or very dry terrain
why do we get speckle?
inherent to imaging of distributed scatterers because SAR is a coherent (same wavelength imaging sensor)
What is speckle?
Salt and peppa. areas with similar land or water cover can have a very “salt and pepper” appearance on radar imagery because of constructive and destructive interference between reflected microwave EM waves
geometric distortion or elevation displacement
elevation displacement, the image displacement in a remote sensing image toward the nadir point in radar imagery due to sensor/target imaging geometries
main types: foreshortening, layover, shadow
Foreshortening
mountains are leaning towards the satellite sensor
Layoever
the top of the mountain covers the glacial valley because of layover
extreme case of foreshortening
easy to fix
shadow
see paper
What does the backscatter coefficient provides information about the imaged surface and is a function of…?
atmospheric parameters
Radar observation parameters
wavelength, polarization, incidence angle of the electromagnetic wave emitted
surface parameters:
roughness, geometric shape/structure, dielectric properties of the target (moisture content)
Polarization of electromagnetic wave
the direction of the electric field in relation to the wave propagation