Radar Images and Geoarchaeology of the Eastern Sahara

El-Baz, Farouk; Robinson, C.; Al-Saud, Turki S.M.

doi:10.1007/0-387-44455-6_2

Cited by 13 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 22 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The limited spatial resolution of these data, too low for the reliable detection and interpretation of many archaeological features, is the primary reason for their relative neglect. However, archaeologists whose interests lie in reconstructing paleoenvironments (El-Baz et al 2007;Herrmann 2012;Howey et al 2014), the distribution of anthropogenic soils and landscapes (e.g. Menze & Ur 2012), or in monitoring of changes in overall land use, may find data from Sentinel series and other low-to moderate-resolution satellites useful.…”

Section: High Temporal Revisit Satellitesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recent Trends and Long-standing Problems in Archaeological Remote Sensing

Opitz

Herrmann

2018

Journal of Computer Applications in Archaeology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The variety and sophistication of data sources, sensors, and platforms employed in archaeological remote sensing have increased significantly over the past decade. Projects incorporating data from UAV surveys, regional and research-driven lidar surveys, the uptake of hyperspectral imaging, the launch of high-temporal revisit satellites, the advent of multi-sensor rigs for geophysical survey, and increased use of structure from motion mean that more archaeologists are engaging with remote sensing than ever. These technological advances continue to drive research in the specialist community and provide reasons for optimism about future applications, but many social and technical obstacles to the integration of remote sensing into archaeological research and heritage management remain. This article addresses the challenges of contemporary archaeological remote sensing by briefly reviewing trends and then focusing on providing a critical overview of the main structural problems. The discussion here concentrates on topics that have dominated the discourse in recent archaeological literature and featured prominently in ongoing fieldwork for the past decade across three broad segments of landscape archaeology: data collection in the field, the current state of data access and archives, and processing and interpretation.

show abstract

Section: High Temporal Revisit Satellitesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recent Trends and Long-standing Problems in Archaeological Remote Sensing

Opitz

Herrmann

2018

Journal of Computer Applications in Archaeology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In the eastern Sahara desert, using SIR‐A SAR images, (McCauley et al ., ) discovered subsurface features (2 m deep) related to defunct rivers and channels. This discovery led to subsequent important implications in the geo‐archaeology of prehistoric environments of the region (see also (El‐Baz et al ., ). An old buried river system was also detected using SIR‐A data in the Taklamakan desert (Holcomb, ; Holcomb and Shingiray, ).…”

Section: Archaeological Investigations Based On Spaceborne Sar: An Ovmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…This is particularly evident for archaeological purposes, which historically was limited by the low spatial resolution of early sensors. Despite this drawback, early applications of SAR in archaeology date back to the 1980s and undoubtedly enabled numerous important discoveries and provided new insights in vast deserted areas, as in the case of the Sahara (El‐Baz et al ., ). Nevertheless, these early applications from both aerial and space platforms were mainly demonstrative experimentations made by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) researchers; but archaeological investigations based on spaceborne SAR were limited to ‘operative’ applications due to the scarce public availability of data and also due to the complexity of data processing and software.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Satellite Synthetic Aperture Radar in Archaeology and Cultural Landscape: An Overview

Lasaponara

Masini

2013

Archaeological Prospection

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The importance of satellite SAR in archaeology and palaeolandscape studies Compared with passive optical data, SAR offers a number of advantages, among which, as all-weather imaging tools, they can operate night and day and are less influenced by atmospheric effects. The rationale of using SAR in archaeology is that different surfaces and features exhibit different scattering characteristics and, therefore, Figure 2. Model of the response of elementary scattering mechanisms: simplified examples are from left to right as single bounce (smooth surface), double bounce (urban settlement remains or upstanding relief) and volume scattering, typically from vegetation, in figure linked to overlapping of the effects of urban settlement remains and soil penetration.75 Editorial

show abstract

“…The first spaceborne SAR applications in archaeological domain are dated back to 1980s when the peculiar penetration capability of radar signal was assessed for the investigation of paleo‐landscapes either in tropical/subtropical (Adams, Brown, & Culbert, ) and arid (El‐Baz, Robinson, & Al‐Saud, ) environments primarily utilizing backscattering amplitudes. The other capability of monitoring and conservation of cultural assets, primarily utilizing phase components of SAR data, was exploited by MT‐InSAR approaches (Chen et al, ) that have been validated in the motion inversion with accuracy up to several millimetres.…”

Section: Overview Of Sar Remote Sensing In Cultural Heritage Applicatmentioning

confidence: 99%

Unique performance of spaceborne SAR remote sensing in cultural heritage applications: Overviews and perspectives

Chen

You

Tang

et al. 2017

Archaeological Prospection

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

To be an innovative remote sensing technology, spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is increasingly recognized as an irreplaceable tool in cultural heritage applications, such as archaeological prospection for the discovery of new sites and monument monitoring and management, taking advantage of observation capabilities independent of sun illumination and weather conditions. In this paper, we firstly give a synoptic overview for the state-of-art of spaceborne SAR technology in cultural heritage applications. Then, the unique performance of SAR compared with optical approaches, including subsurface imaging and interferometry, is objectively exploited and assessed using simulations and case studies. Simulations indicated that long wavelength SAR is promising in the detection of relics with an extended geometric dimension, particularly when the performance of tomographic SAR (TomoSAR) in subsurface imaging is optimized. However, case studies proved that interferometic SAR (InSAR) is useful for landscape archaeology by producing digital elevation models as well as for risk monitoring and preventive diagnosis of cultural properties using motion indicators. This study showed the potentialities of spaceborne SAR applications in cultural heritage, with particular reference to TomoSAR and differential TomoSAR (D-TomoSAR).

show abstract

Radar Images and Geoarchaeology of the Eastern Sahara

Cited by 13 publications

References 22 publications

Recent Trends and Long-standing Problems in Archaeological Remote Sensing

Recent Trends and Long-standing Problems in Archaeological Remote Sensing

Satellite Synthetic Aperture Radar in Archaeology and Cultural Landscape: An Overview

Unique performance of spaceborne SAR remote sensing in cultural heritage applications: Overviews and perspectives

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About