Synthetic Aperture Radar and Search and Rescue: Detection of crashed aircraft using imagery and interferometric methods

This paper summarizes some results of studies at the Canada Centre for Remote Sensing (CCRS) using Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery from spaceborne systems for the detection of crashed aircraft. Studies have been carried out using intensity values only and interferometric methods (using complex image pairs). Change detection using interferometric coherence is particularly promising. The relative size of crashed aircraft and the low resolution of single-polarization, single-frequency spaceborne SAR imagery (approximately 9 m ground resolution being the best currently available from operational remote sensing satellites) have been found to limit the use of such imagery, although the techniques themselves show promise. Further study is needed to examine if the better resolutions that will be available from future systems such as RADARSAT-2 make possible the reliable detection of crashed aircraft using the methods examined here.