System using a priori terrain height data for interferometric synthetic aperture radar (ifsar) phase disambiguation and related methods

A system comprising:

• a memory and a processor cooperating therewith to
• obtain geospatially registered first and second interferometric synthetic aperture radar (IFSAR) images of a geographic area having respective first and second actual grazing angles with a difference therebetween,
• convert the first IFSAR image to a modified first IFSAR image having a modified first grazing angle based upon an estimated height map for the geographic area when the first grazing angle is greater than an angular threshold from the second grazing angle, the modified first grazing angle being closer to the second actual grazing angle than the first actual grazing angle, and
• recover updated terrain elevation data for the geographic area based upon the modified first IFSAR image and the second IFSAR image.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for causing a processor to perform steps comprising:

• obtaining geospatially registered first and second interferometric synthetic aperture radar (IFSAR) images of a geographic area having respective first and second actual grazing angles with a difference therebetween;
• converting the first IFSAR image to a modified first IFSAR image having a modified first grazing angle based upon known terrain elevation data for the geographic area, the modified first grazing angle being closer to the second actual grazing angle than the first actual grazing angle;
• and
• recovering updated terrain elevation data for the geographic area based upon the modified first IFSAR image and the second IFSAR image.