Orbit error removal in InSAR/MTInSAR with a patch-based polynomial model

Abstract The orbit error caused by the inaccuracy of the orbit state vector can lead to fringes in differential interferograms, which can impede the estimation of deformation in differential SAR interferometry (DInSAR) applications. Usually, a set of polynomial coefficients for an entire SAR image is obtained for orbit error removal. However, the orbit error plane is influenced by overfitting in the case that the SAR satellites do not have a precise orbit. In this paper, a patch-based polynomial method is proposed to fit the orbit error plane. The new method divides an SAR image into several overlapping patches in the azimuth and range directions. Every patch obtains its own polynomial coefficients, and an iterative least-square method is used to mosaic the orbit plane. This method is tested and validated via a simulated dataset and then applied to ALOS1/2 PALSAR and Sentinel-1A datasets. The accuracy of deformation is evaluated by in situ GPS datasets. The results show that the patch-based method can fit the orbit phase plane more accurately than the traditional polynomial model with millimeter-level displacement improvement, especially in the margin areas of ALOS1/2 and for the wide-coverage Sentinel-1A datasets. Moreover, in the MTInSAR parameter calculations, the new method improves the accuracy of mean velocity calculations for ALOS1 time series, with a reduction of RMSE from 4.47 mm/yr to 3.17 mm/yr. Additionally, the new method reduces the spatial correlation of the residual topographic phase, with a mean value reduction from 0.32 m to 0.13 m.