Stable Target Detection and Coherence Estimation in Interferometric SAR Stacks

We propose a novel method to select long-term coherent targets from a set of repeated-pass interferometric acquisitions. The major assumption is that targets are so close together to share the same optical path. This leads to an efficient singular-value-decomposition-based estimator of the targets' phase and, then, to PS detection. The estimated phase can be used to define the PS coherence for each image. Being sensitive to acquisition and processing artifacts, the PS coherence is a valuable tool for quality assessment of the interferometric stack. Results are shown with real data sets in both single and full polarizations.