Airborne SAR route with minimum loss by the shadows in the mountainous terrain

No generally approved guide-lines exist for the optimal airborne SAR route with respect to the applications in the mountainous areas, in which, due to strong distortion of the images, the subjective interpretation and the quantitative automatic analysis of the spatial relationship are hampered and even inhibited. The increased application of airborne SAR systems enhances the problem: how to selectthe flight route, with the minimum information loss caused by distorting relief influences. An approach was developed for the determination of the airborne SAR route with minimum loss by shadows, based on the statistical analysis of the relief's aspect, slope and enhanced intrinsic features of the relief structure responsible for the shadows. Applications: the airborne SAR is to be used for mine detection, in the Open Skies mission (in both cases loss of the information is not acceptable), or SAR was loaned and minimum loss is desirable.