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Rainbands are essential to tropical cyclones (TCs), significantly affecting TC structure and intensity change. High‐resolution synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery can capture the footprints of rainbands caused by rain‐induced sea surface roughness modification. Using 464 SAR TC images, we investigated the rainband‐occurrence probability of TCs under different hemispheres, local times (LTs), intensities, and ocean basins. Results show that the rainband‐occurrence probability is highest in the downshear‐left quadrant for Northern Hemisphere TCs (downshear‐right quadrant for Southern Hemisphere TCs). For Northern Hemisphere TCs, the rainband‐occurrence probability is overall higher in the early morning (LT), and the peak region of rainband‐occurrence probability appears farther from the TC center in the evening (LT). Compared with weak TCs, the rainband‐occurrence probability becomes higher for strong TCs in the Northern Hemisphere. Furthermore, TCs have a higher rainband‐occurrence probability in the Northwest Pacific than in the North Atlantic and Northeast Pacific. Plain Language Summary: Rainbands are a salient feature of tropical cyclones (TCs) and are closely related to TC structure and intensity change. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) can capture the sea surface imprint of rainbands beneath clouds caused by rain‐induced sea surface roughness modification. Using 464 SAR TC images, we made 464 rainband‐annotated data. The data were mapped to grid nodes spaced at 0.027 times the radius of max winds in a coordinate system with the origin at the TC center and the y‐axis in the vertical wind shear direction. Then, the data were composited to estimate and further investigate the rainband‐occurrence probability of TCs under different hemispheres, local times (LTs), intensities, and ocean basins. Results show that the rainband‐occurrence probability is highest in the downshear‐left quadrant for Northern Hemisphere TCs (downshear‐right quadrant for Southern Hemisphere TCs). For Northern Hemisphere TCs, the rainband‐occurrence probability is overall higher in the early morning (LT), and the peak region of rainband‐occurrence probability appears farther from the TC center in the evening (LT). Compared with weak TCs, the rainband‐occurrence probability becomes higher for strong TCs in the Northern Hemisphere. Furthermore, TCs have a higher rainband‐occurrence probability in the Northwestern Pacific than in the North Atlantic and Northeast Pacific. Key Points: The sea surface imprint of tropical cyclone (TC) rainbands in many synthetic aperture radar images reveals their occurrence probabilityThe rainband‐occurrence probability is overall higher in the early morning than in the evening. The feature is more obvious in strong TCsThe peak region of the probability appears farther from the TC center in the evening than in the early morning [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the terrain effect on parameter inversion performance of polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (PolSAR) and polarimetric SAR interferometry (PolInSAR) are analysed first. Based on the analysis of the terrain effect on single pixel processing, the terrain effect between adjacent pixels is addressed for both PolSAR and PolInSAR image pairs. Through the analysis, the terrain effect should be considered not only for the single pixel data calibration but also for the adjacent pixels of PolSAR and PolInSAR parameter inversion processing. Therefore, combining with the geometric model correction of sloped‐random volume over ground, the terrain‐compensated procedure is proposed for PolInSAR parameter inversion. The parameter inversion performance is improved effectively with terrain effect consideration. The effectiveness of the proposed method is investigated by the PolSARPro simulated dataset and the real Phased Array L‐Band Synthetic aperture Radar (PALSAR) dataset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A multi‐manifold based sparse representation (MMSR) algorithm which can preserve the local structure of the datasets in the reconstruction space with multiple descriptions is proposed for synthetic aperture radar (SAR) target configuration recognition. Different from the traditional manifold learning‐based algorithms that preserve the local structure of the datasets in the low‐dimensional space, the proposed MMSR guarantees local structure preserving of the datasets after feature extraction and sparse representation. The proposed MMSR can avoid corrupted relationships of the samples to ease the obstacle of target aspect angle sensitivity, which can realize more accurate SAR target configuration recognition. Satisfying results are obtained on the moving and stationary target acquisition and recognition database. Key Points: This paper focuses on target configuration recognition of synthetic aperture radar imagesLocal structure of the datasets is preserved after feature extraction and sparse representation by using the proposed methodCorrupted regions of the data description space which may result in wrong recognition can be avoided by adopting the proposed technique [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extreme precipitation and flooding often lead to human and economic losses. However, the high‐resolution nationwide flooding exposure data are scarce. Availability of all‐weather space‐borne SAR satellite data can potentially improve the ability to generate high‐resolution flood map extent and exposure globally. In Iran, flooding is a major concern, given the socioeconomic vulnerabilities and increased likelihood of climate extremes. Iran experienced extreme flooding during January to March 2019, attributed to significant precipitation during October 2018 to March 2019, which is well above the long‐term averages for 1999–2019. Using Pettitt and Mann Kendall tests, nationwide precipitation records were identified by significant decreasing and increasing trends in north and south, respectively. Utilizing 673 Sentinel‐1 SAR intensity images, we applied a fast‐marching algorithm for image segmentation in combination with a Bayesian framework to obtain high‐resolution probabilistic flood maps. We found, 22, 9, and 15 states in January, February, and March, respectively, experienced flooding that covered >15% of their area with high flooded area percent in the northwestern and southeastern region. We estimated that >15, >11.32, and >11.33 million people were exposed to floods in January, February, and March, respectively. Our datasets inform flooding models and management efforts under increasing climate extremes and changing land use and cover. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]