Joint-Pixel Inversion for Ground Phase and Forest Height Estimation Using Spaceborne Polarimetric SAR Interferometry
Existing forest height estimation methods based on polarimetric interferometric synthetic aperture radar (PolInSAR) typically process each pixel independently, potentially introducing inconsistent estimates and additional decorrelation in the covariance matrix estimation. To address these limitation...
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| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2025-05-01
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| Series: | Remote Sensing |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/17/10/1726 |
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| author | Zenghui Huang Jingyu Gao Xiaolei Lv Xiaoshuai Li |
| author_facet | Zenghui Huang Jingyu Gao Xiaolei Lv Xiaoshuai Li |
| author_sort | Zenghui Huang |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Existing forest height estimation methods based on polarimetric interferometric synthetic aperture radar (PolInSAR) typically process each pixel independently, potentially introducing inconsistent estimates and additional decorrelation in the covariance matrix estimation. To address these limitations and effectively exploit the spatial context information, this paper proposes the first patch-based inversion method named joint pixel optimization inversion (JPO). By leveraging the smoothness and regularity of homogeneous pixels, a joint-pixel optimization problem is constructed, incorporating a first-order regularization on the ground phase. To solve the non-parallelizable problem of the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM), we devise a new parallelizable ADMM algorithm and prove its sublinear convergence. With the contextual information of neighboring pixels, JPO can provide more reliable forest height estimation and reduce the overestimation caused by additional decorrelation. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified using spaceborne L-band repeat-pass SAOCOM acquisitions and LiDAR heights obtained from ICESat-2. Quantitative evaluations in forest height estimation show that the proposed method achieves a lower mean error (1.23 m) and RMSE (3.67 m) than the existing method (mean error: 3.09 m; RMSE: 4.70 m), demonstrating its improved reliability. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-0805d2c43a6c496f882fef6c239c687e |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2072-4292 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-05-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Remote Sensing |
| spelling | doaj-art-0805d2c43a6c496f882fef6c239c687e2025-08-20T03:47:58ZengMDPI AGRemote Sensing2072-42922025-05-011710172610.3390/rs17101726Joint-Pixel Inversion for Ground Phase and Forest Height Estimation Using Spaceborne Polarimetric SAR InterferometryZenghui Huang0Jingyu Gao1Xiaolei Lv2Xiaoshuai Li3Key Laboratory of Technology in Geo-Spatial Information Processing and Application System, Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, ChinaKey Laboratory of Technology in Geo-Spatial Information Processing and Application System, Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, ChinaKey Laboratory of Technology in Geo-Spatial Information Processing and Application System, Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, ChinaKey Laboratory of Technology in Geo-Spatial Information Processing and Application System, Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, ChinaExisting forest height estimation methods based on polarimetric interferometric synthetic aperture radar (PolInSAR) typically process each pixel independently, potentially introducing inconsistent estimates and additional decorrelation in the covariance matrix estimation. To address these limitations and effectively exploit the spatial context information, this paper proposes the first patch-based inversion method named joint pixel optimization inversion (JPO). By leveraging the smoothness and regularity of homogeneous pixels, a joint-pixel optimization problem is constructed, incorporating a first-order regularization on the ground phase. To solve the non-parallelizable problem of the alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM), we devise a new parallelizable ADMM algorithm and prove its sublinear convergence. With the contextual information of neighboring pixels, JPO can provide more reliable forest height estimation and reduce the overestimation caused by additional decorrelation. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified using spaceborne L-band repeat-pass SAOCOM acquisitions and LiDAR heights obtained from ICESat-2. Quantitative evaluations in forest height estimation show that the proposed method achieves a lower mean error (1.23 m) and RMSE (3.67 m) than the existing method (mean error: 3.09 m; RMSE: 4.70 m), demonstrating its improved reliability.https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/17/10/1726forest height inversionpolarimetric interferometric synthetic aperture radar (PolInSAR)joint pixel optimizationmaximum a posteriori estimationalternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) |
| spellingShingle | Zenghui Huang Jingyu Gao Xiaolei Lv Xiaoshuai Li Joint-Pixel Inversion for Ground Phase and Forest Height Estimation Using Spaceborne Polarimetric SAR Interferometry Remote Sensing forest height inversion polarimetric interferometric synthetic aperture radar (PolInSAR) joint pixel optimization maximum a posteriori estimation alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) |
| title | Joint-Pixel Inversion for Ground Phase and Forest Height Estimation Using Spaceborne Polarimetric SAR Interferometry |
| title_full | Joint-Pixel Inversion for Ground Phase and Forest Height Estimation Using Spaceborne Polarimetric SAR Interferometry |
| title_fullStr | Joint-Pixel Inversion for Ground Phase and Forest Height Estimation Using Spaceborne Polarimetric SAR Interferometry |
| title_full_unstemmed | Joint-Pixel Inversion for Ground Phase and Forest Height Estimation Using Spaceborne Polarimetric SAR Interferometry |
| title_short | Joint-Pixel Inversion for Ground Phase and Forest Height Estimation Using Spaceborne Polarimetric SAR Interferometry |
| title_sort | joint pixel inversion for ground phase and forest height estimation using spaceborne polarimetric sar interferometry |
| topic | forest height inversion polarimetric interferometric synthetic aperture radar (PolInSAR) joint pixel optimization maximum a posteriori estimation alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM) |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/17/10/1726 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT zenghuihuang jointpixelinversionforgroundphaseandforestheightestimationusingspacebornepolarimetricsarinterferometry AT jingyugao jointpixelinversionforgroundphaseandforestheightestimationusingspacebornepolarimetricsarinterferometry AT xiaoleilv jointpixelinversionforgroundphaseandforestheightestimationusingspacebornepolarimetricsarinterferometry AT xiaoshuaili jointpixelinversionforgroundphaseandforestheightestimationusingspacebornepolarimetricsarinterferometry |