An interferometric imaging altimeter applied for both ocean and land observation

This paper introduces an interferometric imaging altimeter system designed for both ocean and land observations. This sensor combines the functions of interferometric radar altimeter and SAR together and is aimed to provide centimeter- level accuracy of topography for ocean and meter-level accuracy of topography for land. With the interferometry technique, a wide swath of 80 km is achieved, and with the synthetic aperture technique, a resolution of 100 m for land observation is achieved. System design is outlined and some preliminary results are presented.