Determening the optimum compromise between SAR data compression and radiometric performance -An approach based on the analysis of TerraSAR -X data-

Data compression is crucial for modern synthetic aperture radar systems where high resolution or large coverage may result in huge amounts of raw data. Modern satellite systems, such as TerraSAR-X, give complete flexibility in choosing between various compression levels. This, however, results in additional effort to decide on the suitable compression level used, which may depend on the operation mode, polarization, scene backscatter, etc. The paper describes the approach used in the case of TerraSAR-X and shows the result of analyzing the data acquired during the commissioning phase. The methology is considered novel in the sense that it combines SAR measured data analysis with theoretical, i.e. model based simulations, results and later combines theory and measured data to extract optimum compression levels.