Characteristics of TanDEM-X experimental modes

Author

Bello, José Luis Bueso ; González, Carolina ; Kraus, Thomas ; Bräutigam, Benjamin

Author_Institution

Microwaves & Radar Inst., German Aerosp. Center (DLR), Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany

fYear

2012

fDate

22-27 July 2012

Firstpage

1042

Lastpage

1045

Abstract

TanDEM-X is a spaceborne mission consisting in two satellites that are operated simultaneously for bistatic SAR acquisitions. The main objective of the mission is the systematic acquisition of a global and homogeneous digital elevation model (DEM) in bistatic stripmap mode. The close formation of the satellites makes the system very flexible and allows the commanding of a diversity of challenging experimental modes as bistatic spotlight or alternating bistatic stripmap modes. This paper gives an overview of the TanDEM-X experimental modes, focused on the analysis of already executed scientific orders, giving an overview of the different possibilities in commanding and image acquisition geometries. Also a first image characterization of the modes is included, in terms of image quality assessment and performance compliance.

Keywords

digital elevation models; geometry; geophysical image processing; image resolution; spaceborne radar; synthetic aperture radar; DEM; TanDEM-X experimental mode; bistatic SAR acquisitions; bistatic spotlight; global systematic acquisition; homogeneous digital elevation model; image acquisition geometries; image quality assessment; image resolution; spaceborne mission; Azimuth; Bandwidth; Image resolution; Imaging; Satellites; Strips; Synthetic aperture radar; Bistatic SAR; Experimental modes; Interferometry; Performance; TanDEM-X;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS), 2012 IEEE International

Conference_Location

Munich

ISSN

2153-6996

Print_ISBN

978-1-4673-1160-1

Electronic_ISBN

2153-6996

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IGARSS.2012.6350819

Filename

6350819