Estimating Titan Surface Topography from Cassini Synthetic Aperture RADAR Data

Details Estimating Titan Surface Topography from Cassini Synthetic Aperture RADAR Data Estimating Titan Surface Topography from Cassini Synthetic Aperture RADAR Data

Dec 2007

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2007agufm.p23b1352s&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2007, abstract #P23B-1352

Physics

5419 Hydrology And Fluvial Processes, 5460 Physical Properties Of Materials, 5464 Remote Sensing, 5494 Instruments And Techniques

Scientific paper

One of the more vexing dilemmas for RADAR remote sensing is the necessity to choose between altimetry and SAR imaging of a surface. Coincident surface height estimates are very useful in aiding the analysis of the unique surface features observed in the SAR imagery of Titan. Radar altimetry is optimally obtained from nadir observations, whereas SAR requires off-nadir observation in order to construct an image. Co-located nadir altimetry and SAR only occur when observations taken at different times happen to overlap. Stereo techniques can also be used to estimate topography in SAR images, but they also require multiple overlapping observations. Here we discuss a technique, SARTopo, for obtaining 10 km horizontal resolution and 75 m vertical resolution surface height estimates along each SAR swath. The height estimates comprise 1-3 cuts in each SAR pass that are 10 km wide by thousands of km long and extend along the entire long dimension of the SAR image strips. Because we obtain co-located topography along each SAR pass rather than only in regions with overlapping observations, the new technique extends the area over which we have colocated topography and SAR imagery by a couple orders of magnitude. The method is based upon Amplitude Monopulse Comparison, a technique for resolving RADAR targets developed prior to the advent of SAR. The technique requires: 1) accurate spacecraft pointing, 2) accurate spacecraft ephemeris, 3) precise knowledge of the antenna pattern of the RADAR, and 4) downlinked echo data covering the entire antenna footprint. The fourth requirement is met through synergy with Cassini SAR coverage requirements. Cassini SAR commanding and pointing is designed to utilize as much of the antenna footprint as possible in order to maximize cross-track coverage. We describe the technique and present the results for several SAR passes. We validate the technique through comparison with known features such as mountain ranges and dry lakes, and by comparison with colocated nadir altimetry and SAR stereo. In particular, we examine a strip of nadir altimetry obtained along a 1000 km strip observed by SAR a month earlier. The SARTopo height track is within 5-10 km of the nadir altimetry track for a 200 km long section. In this area, the two independent techniques agree closely. Furthermore the region contains prominent high spatial resolution topography, so it provides an excellent test of the resolution and accuracy of both techniques. SARTopo heights are also co-located and agree well with SAR stereo observations. The research described here was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

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