Work

An enhanced phase linking method for DS-InSAR land subsidence monitoring

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Phase Linking (PL) techniques face challenges in constructing high-quality Sample Covariance Matrices (SCM) for Distributed Scatterers (DS), due to limited Statistically Homogeneous Pixels (SHPs) and possible heterogeneity. To address this, this paper proposes a method termed SE-NS, which integrates Spectral Entropy (SE) weighting and Nonlinear Shrinkage (NS). SE-NS assigns weights based on spectral entropy differences between a pixel and its SHPs, applies weighted averaging to the SCM, and then performs nonlinear shrinkage on the Sample Coherence Magnitude Matrix (SCMM) to obtain an optimized SCM and SCMM. The EMI algorithm is subsequently used for DS time-series phase estimation. Tests on simulated and real SAR data show that SE-NS outperforms traditional PL in noise suppression and phase smoothing, improves phase quality for deformation retrieval, and increases effective DS points by ~7% compared to EMI.

Source: Geocarto International

DOI: 10.1080/10106049.2026.2622174

Authors: Yuan Yuan, Hongzhen Zhang, Jian Li, Jun Feng

Institution: China University of Mining and Technology

Language: English

Topic: Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Applications and Techniques

Subfield: Aerospace Engineering

Field: Engineering

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDG: Industry, innovation and infrastructure

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $2,390