The SAOCOM-1 space-borne mission, developed by the Space Agency of Argentina (CONAE), involves two Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) sensors operating at L-band with different acquisition modes. Among them, the TOPSAR mode lacks burst synchronization, thus making more difficult the selection of repeat pass datasets suitable for interferometric purposes.This work shows that, despite the lack of burst synchronization, SAOCOM-1 TOPSAR data can be in any case successfully used for interferometric applications due to the large number of available acquisitions carried out with this mode.

In this work we focus on the estimation of the soil permittivity from L-band polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data. To this aim, we consider SAOCOM-1 data collected in December 2021, over the province of La Pampa, in Argentina. The soil permittivity estimates, obtained through the Polarimetric Two-Scale Model (PTSM), are compared with the in-situ measurements collected at the same time of the SAR acquisition. Our results of the dielectric constant retrieved for the full scene are in accordance with a semi-arid landscape where the mode of the retrieved estimates is around εr~4 and a 2.41% relative error was found for ground data.

SAOCOM-1 constellation operates in three acquisition modes: Stripmap (SM), TOPSAR Narrow (TNA and TNB) and TOPSAR Wide (TW). Since repeat pass SAOCOM-1 TOPSAR acquisitions are not synchronized, the generation of the related interferometric products is not guaranteed, as it happens instead for the synchronized repeat pass TOPSAR acquisitions, such as those of Sentinel-1. In this work, we assess the suitability of SAOCOM-1 TOPSAR acquisitions for generating interferometric products. To this aim, we first discuss the constraints that must be fulfilled by the repeat pass non-synchronized TOPS acquisitions in order to make it feasible the generation of usable interferograms. Then, we verify if SAOCOM-1 TOPSAR acquisitions fulfill these constraints. For this purpose, we present an analysis based on the use of a data set composed by 18 TNB images relevant to a single subswath illuminating a region located in the South-West of Argentina. From this data set, we were able to select 48 pairs that guarantee the spectral superposition needed for interferometric purposes. We verified that the 50% of these 48 pairs fulfill the constraint required to avoid in the corresponding interferograms the presence of non-coherent azimuth stripes, whose azimuth extension depends on one side on the mis-synchronization percentage between the repeat pass acquisitions, and on the other side on the overlapping percentage between adjacent bursts of the same acquisition. Summing up, the presented analysis proves the potential of SAOCOM-1 TOPSAR acquisitions to obtain interferometric products, despite the absence of bursts synchronization between repeat pass acquisitions.

We present in this work some advances of the Differential SAR Interferometry (DInSAR) technique referred to as Parallel Small BAseline Subset (P-SBAS) approach, allowing us to effectively process the recently available L-band SAR images acquired by the Argentinian SAOCOM-1 constellation. This activity has been carried out within the DInSAR-3M project, co-funded by the Italian Space Agency, which is aimed to develop technical solutions for the joint exploitation of multi-frequency (X-, C- and L- band) and multi-platform (spaceborne and airborne) DInSAR measurements. The main goal is the generation of surface deformation time series and corresponding mean displacement velocity maps, spatially and temporally dense, for the multi-scale analysis of natural and anthropogenic phenomena.The assessment of the developed advances has been carried out by processing several SAOCOM-1 SAR datasets acquired over Italy between 2019 and 2022.

We present in this work the first results of the project referred to as DInSAR-3M, which is aimed to generate surface deformation time series and mean velocity maps, spatially and temporally dense, for the multi-scale analysis of natural and anthropogenic phenomena. The project objective will be pursued through the use of the advanced Differential SAR Interferometry (DInSAR) technique referred to as Parallel Small BAseline Subset (P-SBAS) approach and the development of a solution for the integration of multi-frequency (X-, C- and L- band) and multi-platform DInSAR measurements. In the following, we present the first results focused on the interferometric exploitation of the recently available L-band SAR images acquired by the Argentinian SAOCOM constellation.