Multi-mode PolInSAR experiments using an airborne X-band SAR system in China

In this paper, we describe our polarimetric interferometric synthetic aperture radar (PolInSAR) experiments with high-resolution X-band data acquired by a multi-mode airborne SAR system over an area of Linshui in southern China. First, we introduce our latest multi-mode X-band airborne imaging radar system (Multi-Mode-XSAR), which integrates three operation modes of bistatic, ping-pong, and mixed. Then, the Multi-Mode-XSAR data set and the corresponding ground measurements in test areas are briefly described. Considering the characteristics of the Multi-Mode-XSAR imagery, a dual-baseline polarimetric interferometry (DPI) method is proposed in this article. The proposed method guarantees a high coherence on the full polarimetric data and combines the benefits of short and long baselines to facilitate the phase unwrapping and promote height sensitivity. Our PolInSAR experiment results demonstrate that the DPI method is capable of generating DSM with higher accuracy than other multi-baseline (MB) methods and the Multi-Mode-XSAR imagery has great potential in PolInSAR applications.