Terrain mapping for the southwestern desert of Iraq using interferometry method from sentinel-1A images

Abstract

Synthetic aperture radar Interferometry is a popular three-dimensional imaging technique for creating a Digital Elevation Model. Using traditional methods for creating DEMs and terrain mapping is one of the methods that require high cost and time-consuming, which has affected the creation and updating of terrain maps in Iraq, so this study aims to use the InSAR technology to generate DEM, which contributes to the creation of terrain maps. In this work, the synthetic aperture radar interferometry approach was used on the interference stack generated from a pair of Sentinel-1A images within the SNAP program to generate a DEM and a terrain map of the desert region in south-western Iraq. The elevations of the digital elevation model were compared with those of the RTK-GCPs points in the region of interest. The results obtained from this study are a terrain map with the contour lines generated from the digital elevation model created by the InSAR technique with an accuracy of 18 m, with the root mean square error of the DEM being 8.17. The outputs prove the effectiveness of InSAR technology in generating accurate DEM that contributes to creating terrain maps in less time and cost than traditional methods.