Title :
First bistatic spaceborne SAR experiments with TanDEM-X
Author :
Rodriguez-Cassola, Marc ; Prats, P. ; Schulze, D. ; Tous-Ramon, N. ; Steinbrecher, Ulrich ; Marotti, L. ; Nannini, Matteo ; Younis, Marwan ; Lopez-Dekker, P. ; Zink, M. ; Reigber, Andreas ; Krieger, Gerhard ; Moreira, Alberto
Author_Institution :
Microwaves & Radar Inst., German Aerosp. Center (DLR), Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany
Abstract :
TanDEM-X is a high-resolution interferometric mission with the main goal of providing a global and unprecedentedly accurate digital elevation model (DEM) of the Earth surface by means of single-pass X-band SAR interferometry. De spite its usual quasi-monostatic configuration, TanDEM-X is the first genuinely bistatic SAR system in space. During its monostatic commissioning phase, the system has been mainly operated in pursuit monostatic mode. However, some pioneering bistatic SAR experiments with both satellites commanded in non-nominal modes have been conducted with the main purpose of testing the performance of both space and ground segments in very demanding scenarios. In particular, this paper reports about the first bistatic acquisition and the first single-pass interferometric (mono/bistatic) acquisition with TanDEM-X. Even in the absence of essential synchronisation and calibration information, bistatic images and interferograms with similar quality to pursuit monostatic have been obtained.
Keywords :
calibration; data acquisition; digital elevation models; geophysical image processing; geophysical techniques; image resolution; spaceborne radar; synchronisation; synthetic aperture radar; TANDEM-X; bistatic SAR system; bistatic acquisition analysis; bistatic image analysis; calibration information analysis; digital elevation model; high-resolution interferometric mission; monostatic commissioning phase; monostatic mode; nonnominal mode; phase synchronisation; quasimonostatic configuration; single-pass X-band SAR interferometry; single-pass interferometric acquisition; spaceborne SAR experiment; Azimuth; Coherence; Imaging; Satellites; Spaceborne radar; Synchronization; Volcanoes; TanDEM-X; spaceborne SAR missions; time and phase synchronisation;
Conference_Titel :
Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS), 2011 IEEE International
Conference_Location :
Vancouver, BC
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4577-1003-2
DOI :
10.1109/IGARSS.2011.6049326