Radar Stereo Mapping with Crossing Flight Lines

With polar orbits at higher geographic latitudes, and with inclined, non-polar orbits, satellite radar missions can result in crossing flight lines that produce convergent stereo-image pairs. The geometry of this imaging configuration is rather unique and it can be used to obtain topographic elevation measurements. A sample data set has been selected from the Space Shuttle’s SIR experiment for numerical evaluation. These actual radar data as well as computer simulations serve to better explore this particular measuring opportunity. It is concluded that convergent radar stereo is a valid concept for application in satellite missions at high geographic latitudes and from a combination of ascending and descending orbits in the event of non-polar orbits.