Mapping with Aircraft and Satellite Radar Images

The history of radargrammetry spans about 35 years. It has moved from early plan position indicator (PPI) radar records of 1948 to the current (1984) space shuttle imaging radar SIR-B. We can look forward to the future 1989 European and Japanese remote sensing satellites ERS-1 and NASA's 1988 Venus Radar Mapper (VRM) mission. The mapping application requires that methods be available to deal with single images, stereoscopic pairs or blocks of image strips. The predominantly digital data format suggests that radargrammetric methods should be implemented in digital image processing systems for rectification, digital terrain elevation extraction and multi-image registration for change monitoring. This paper presents a review of current radargrammetric understanding, applications and expected developments.