4D quick Diff-Tomo analyses of short-term decorrelation of distributed scatterers

In the framework of developments of 3D forest Tomography, the issue of extensive and detailed characterizations of temporal decorrelation phenomena has recently emerged, especially for the future spaceborne missions. In particular, height-varying (stratified) behaviour of long-term temporal decorrelation mechanisms has been analyzed by advanced 4D (3D+Time) Differential SAR Tomography processing applied to airborne data, and dedicated radar-tower campaigns have been conducted or are running. In this work, new Differential Tomography analyses exploiting a very quick acquisition ground-based miniradar are presented, aiming to open investigation of both height- and time-varying characteristics of the short-term decorrelation processes of the complex moving and non-stationary (dynamic) volumetric scatterers of windblown forests. This innovative characterization methodology and the first reported findings can be useful especially for the development of advanced spaceborne Tomography systems based on formation-flying and 3D correlative track-pair only processing.