Phase Imbalance Analysis of GF-3 Along-Track InSAR Data for Ocean Current Measurement

There are two useful methods of current measurement based on synthetic aperture radar (SAR): one is along-track interferometry (ATI), and the other is Doppler centroid analysis (DCA). For the ATI method, the interferometric phase must be accurate enough for ocean current measurements. Therefore, the space-varying of phase imbalances along the range, caused by antenna phase center position error, attitude error, antenna electronic miss pointing, antenna pattern mismatch, and other reasons, cannot be ignored. Firstly, this paper mainly analyzes the above possible factors by using real GF-3 ATI data and error model simulation results. Secondly, the ocean current has been preliminarily measured by the ATI method and the DCA method, using CDOP model, based on the GF-3 ATI data of the ocean scene near Qingdao, China, which is up to around −1.45 m/s. The results of the two methods are in good agreement with the correlation coefficient of 0.98, the mean difference of −0.010 m/s, and the root mean squared error (RMSE) of 0.062 m/s. Moreover, by comparing with the current measured by high-frequency surface wave radar (HFSWR), the correctness of the analysis is further proved.