Module 8 Slant range to Ground range

conversion
Program to run: sr2gr.m (bilinear interpolation),
srogr_cubic_conv_2d.m (cubic convolution interpolation)
Functions used : Input

: \module_7\multilooked_azi.dat

Output

: sr2gr.dat (bilinear interpolation), srogr_cc.dat (cubic convolution interpolation)

Description

The SLC and multi-looked images have slant range geometry i.e. it is based on the actual
distance between target and radar (in a direction which is at an angle/slant to the ground) not the
distance measured along the earths surface. We need to convert the slant range measurement
into the true ground range measurement so that all the features are in their proper planimetric
(x,y) position relative to one another in the final radar image. This is done by resampling in range
direction. In the program given in the module, sr2gr.m, both range and azimuth pixels are
resized and resampled to get aground range image. Run sr2gr.m to perform slant range to
ground range image conversion on SLC or azimuth multi-looked image along with bilinear
interpolation. Run srogr_cubic_conv_2d.m to perform slant range to ground range conversion
and interpolation by cubic convolution method.

Explanation

Slant range to ground range conversion:

Slant range to ground range conversion is also done in patch-wise manner. Azimuth
resampling: azimuth resampling is done by forming indices in azimuth direction using the
following relation.

Where r_index is the corresponding existing index, az_lookup is the new index array that
extends from zero to number of azimuth lines in one patch. The new_size specified can be
changed to vary the size in azimuth direction and also decides the size of az_lookup.

r g * Re
rg / R e
cos 2

Radius of the Earth Re

a2

sin 2
b 2

1 / 2

Range resampling: using the cosine law, the ground range can be determined by using the
relation

Where ht is distance of sensor from the center of the earth, re is the radius of the earth and ro is
that slant range distance. This is calculated for the initial slant range. From this value of rg, the
new_size required is added and slant range and corresponding ground range are iteratively
calculated. Slant range calculation for a given ground range is done using the following relation

The new range lookup index is created iteratively using the relation

After this resampling is completed, interpolation is done. Interpolation can be done in

several ways like bilinear interpolation, cubic convolution interpolation, cubic spline
interpolation etc. Bilinear interpolation is used for resampling the input slant range image to get
ground range image. Using bilinear interpolation, the output pixel value can be written as

Where zk is the value of the neighboring pixel and D k is the distance to that pixel. This results
in weighting of the pixels according to the distance from the resampled point. The output pixel
value will depend on four neighboring pixels.

Cubic Convolution interpolation: cubic convolution is a polynomial interpolation method

based on convolution. The weighting is done in 4 x 4 window in contrary to the 2 x 2 in bilinear
interpolation. The third order cubic convolution kernel is given below.

This is a one dimensional windowing function. The 2-Dimensional cubic convolution is

achieved by applying this window in two dimensions. To determine each pixel value, weighting
is applied for each of the 4 rows and then the same window is applied to the 4 values obtained.

Results:
Ground Range Image
100
200

Azimuth bin

300
400
500
600
700
800
900
1000

200

400

600
Range bin

800

1000

Ground range image for new size in range and azimuth direction - 20

Ground Range Image of Mumbai

100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
1000
1100
200

400

600

800

1000

Ground range image after applying cubic convolution interpolation