Comparison of precipitation effects in space-borne X- and Ka-band SAR imaging

As the operating frequencies of SAR-systems are increasing, the visible distortions due to precipitation in SAR-images are becoming more frequent. This holds especially for the case of convective rain events. The German space-borne satellite TerraSAR-X has delivered a series of measurement examples, which were used to study precipitation effects in SAR-images. Based on these valuable data takes and simultaneous weather radar measurements, a quantitative estimation of precipitation effects in SAR-images is presented. In a further step, an attempt is made to extrapolate the observed effects to systems operating at higher nominal frequency-bands, i.e. Ka-band, being taken under consideration for future SAR-systems.