Trial lecture
“Estimation of topographic height using SAR interferometry”
Time and place: January 22, 2026 11:15 AM. Kristen Nygaards sal (5370), Ole-Johan Dahls hus.
Main research findings
Synthetic aperture sonar (SAS) imaging has become widely used in industry, academia, and military applications over the past decades. It provides highly detailed images while covering large areas, a combination that is difficult to achieve with many other bathymetric sensing technologies. Despite this, bathymetric mapping based on interferometric SAS remains relatively uncommon. Unlocking its full potential could enable new applications across a wide range of fields.
In this thesis, I reduce the gap between the high resolution of SAS imagery and the lower resolution associated with SAS-based bathymetry by improving the underlying signal processing methods. I also investigate several derived bathymetric parameters and explore their potential use in practical applications. In addition, I develop improved visualization and rendering techniques for interferometric SAS data.
The publications included in this thesis span topics from the fundamentals of SAS image formation to new methods for interferogram filtering, estimation of seafloor slope and related parameters, and advanced visualization techniques. Together, these contributions connect the full workflow - from raw sonar data to clear and informative visual representations - and advance both the processing and visualization of interferometric SAS data.
Adjudication committee
- Associate Professor Isabelle Quidu, ENSTA, France
- Senior Researcher Yngvar Larsen, NORCE, Norway
- Professor Svein-Erik Hamran, University of Oslo, Norway
Supervisors
Professor Roy Edgar Hansen, University of Oslo, Norway
Principal Scientist Torstein Olsmo Sæbø, Norwegian Defence Research Establishment, Norway
Professor Alan Hunter, University of Bath, UK
Professor Andreas Austeng, University of Oslo, Norway
Senior Researcher Øyvind Ødegård, NTNU AMOS, Norway
Chair of defence
- Özgu Mira Alay-Erduran, Department of Informatics, University of Oslo
Contact information at Department: Pernille Adine Nordby