Application of SAR tomography in urban area

Scattering of microwaves in urban areas is a rather complex mechanism due to the presence of a high density of structures, with high topographic variations, where responses of different targets may interfere in the same resolution cell. This work discusses the results obtained via a coherent multiple-view processing, namely the 3D SAR tomography technique based on the Singular Value Decomposition, to discriminate targets in elevation. With respect to classical SAR interferometry, that allows mapping the height only of the mean or dominant target, the technique here discussed provides a full three-dimensional reconstruction capability, by providing measure of the scattering power distribution at different heights in the same resolution cell. Results obtained by processing real data acquired by the satellites ERS-1/2 on the Napoli urban area are presented.