Improvement of InSAR DEM accuracy using data and sensor fusion

During recent years, SAR interferometry (INSAR) has developed to a powerful technique to derive high precision digital elevation models (DEMs) from SAR image pairs. All weather and daylight independence, along with an abundance of data coming from different SAR sensors, enable SAR interferometry to compete with stereoscopy, the classic, optical approach for DEM generation. This paper addresses the error of the INSAR DEM in those areas, where the received radar signals are corrupted by ground properties. Because these errors result from SAR properties themselves, the only way to resolve them, is a fusion with data from other sources. For that purpose, the error of the INSAR DEM in these areas will be evaluated and compared to the error of the DEM from complementary sources.