Experimental study on the atmospheric delay based on GPS, SAR interferometry, and numerical weather model data

In this paper, we present the results of an experiment aiming to compare measurements of atmospheric delay by synthetic aperture radar (SAR) interferometry and GPS techniques to estimates by numerical weather prediction. Maps of the differential atmospheric delay are generated by processing a set of interferometric SAR images acquired by the ENVISAT-ASAR mission over the Lisbon region from April to November 2009. GPS measurements of the wet zenith delay are carried out over the same area, covering the time interval between the first and the last SAR acquisition. The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model is used to model the atmospheric delay over the study area at about the same time of SAR acquisitions. The analysis of results gives hints to devise mitigation approaches of atmospheric artifacts in SAR interferometry applications.