Application of the RPC model for spaceborne SAR image geometric processing

An increasing number of low, medium, and high resolution SAR satellites creates a demand for a generalized sensor model to replace the rigorous sensor model (RSM). The rational polynomial coefficient (RPC) model is a generic sensor model which accurately fits the object-image geometry for various sensor systems with different coefficient values. It has been widely used as an alternative to RSM for photogrammetric processing of optical images, but its applications to SAR images are rarely discussed in publications. In this paper, the feasibility and practicability of the RPC model for SAR images are studied. The RPC model can not only be used to replace the RSM (range-Doppler model for SAR), but also applied to the processing chain for SAR data, thus facilitating the processing of SAR and InSAR data for end users.