Remarks on correcting ionospheric distortions in L-band radar interferometry

The L-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) interferometry (InSAR) technique has a lower accuracy due to ionospheric phase distortions. Recently, a multiple-aperture interferometry (MAI)-based ionospheric correction method has been proposed. Using four types of ionosphere-distorted interferograms, the performance of the correction method was evaluated and then analyzed the feasibility of the correction method. The test interferograms contained severe azimuth streaking, low-frequency ionospheric phase distortion and drastic phase change due to the ionosphere. The results showed that (i) the existence and magnitude of ionospheric phase distortions can be recognized from MAI interferograms and (ii) the MAI-based ionospheric correction method efficiently reduced severe azimuth streaking and low-frequency distortion but did not mitigate the drastic phase change perfectly. It is allowed (i) to determine whether a given SAR interferogram has an ionospheric distortion and (ii) to predict whether the ionospheric distortion can be corrected by using the MAI-based ionospheric correction method.