SAR data applications in earth observation: An overview

Abstract

In this review, we present the main approaches developed around satellite and airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery. The great range of SAR imagery applications is summarized in this paper. We organize the most popular methods and their applications in a cohesive manner. SAR data applications are classified into earth observation and object detection applications and the former are separated into land, sea, and ice applications. We present the basic methodologies and recent advances in land cover classification and object detection, as well as techniques for parameter retrieval from SAR data. We give advantages and disadvantages and highlight the particular characteristics of each method. It is shown that usage of SAR contributes to the amelioration of techniques and to the enhancement of reliability.