The RIDE Lab research group, coordinated by Prof. Stefano Tebaldini from the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering – Politecnico di Milano, has won the Symposium Prize Award at IGARSS 2025 for their work “Assessment of L-Band Bistatic Correlation Tomography for Forestry Applications: Theoretical Models and Experimental Results”, first presented at IGARSS 2024.
This research introduces a new radar technique called Bistatic Correlation Tomography, which makes it possible to “see” the vertical structure of objects like forests. Unlike traditional methods, it is not affected by changes over time—an advantage when observing living ecosystems. The team first developed a mathematical model to predict how well the method would work, then tested it with computer simulations and finally applied it to real radar data. The results show the technique’s strong potential for studying forests in detail, from canopy to ground.
This comes after another major achievement in 2024: the group also won the Best Paper Award at EuSAR for their work on “FDM MIMO SAR Tomography”. In this study, they explored how a formation of satellites working together could be used to capture very fine details of natural environments such as snow, ice, and vegetation. By transmitting signals on different frequencies and collecting the echoes with multiple satellites at once, they were able to simulate the effect of having many more radar images than satellites. This approach could allow scientists to generate 3D maps of the snowpack from space with a level of detail previously achievable only with specialized aircraft or ground-based systems.
Winning top awards at both IGARSS and EuSAR—the two most prestigious conferences in Synthetic Aperture Radar remote sensing—marks an extraordinary recognition for the RIDE Lab team and confirms their leading role in pushing the boundaries of radar technology for environmental monitoring.