In this paper we introduce a new approach for recovering shape-from-shading (SFS) from synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images of the terrain. Three contributions are proposed. Firstly, we show how the direction of surface normals is constrained by the geometry of the radar reflectivity cone. Second, we show how topographic features can be used as boundary constraints on the recovered surface normals. Finally, the resulting field of surface normals is smoothed using robust statistics.
Adrian G. Bors, Edwin R. Hancock, Richard C. Wilso