The present invention relates to a method for the computer-aided generation of a data-driven model for the computer-aided
processing of digital SAR data from a repeat-pass SAR
system configured to determine surface deformations. The digital SAR data consist of a plurality of interferograms (Γ), each of which is obtained from a first SLC acquisition (s1) of the SAR
system at a first time point and a second SLC acquisition (s2) of the SAR
system at a second time point later than the first, and a Doppler
center frequency (fdc), an
interferometric phase (φ̂), and a coherence (P), all of which are obtained from a respective pair of first and second SLC acquisitions (s1, s2). The data-driven model is configured to generate a zero-Doppler phase (φzd), which represents the phase contribution associated with the deformation causing a zero-Doppler LOS change.to determine an along-track phase (φat), representing the phase contribution associated with deformation in an along-track direction, and an estimate of an associated along-track surface motion (uat). The generation of the data-driven model comprises the following steps: - Generating a synthetic training dataset (TDS) comprising a variety of interferograms (Γ), each formed by a pair of a first and a second SLC capture (s1, s2), by inducing a model-based and external 3D deformation into a given first SLC capture (s1) to obtain the associated second SLC capture (s2), which relates to a time point after a deformation event, and by applying a reverse approach,which is specified by a given coherence (ρ) and a
noise-free
interferometric phase (φtheo) after the deformation event; - Training a neural network (NN) with the training dataset (TDS), wherein the neural network (NN) comprises an input for inputting the plurality of interferograms (Γ) and an output for outputting the along-track phase (Φat), the zero-Doppler phase (φzd) and the associated along-track surface motion (uat) for the plurality of interferograms (Γ), wherein the trained neural network (NN) represents the generated data-driven model.