TerraSAR-X dual receive antenna mode: Experimental data results on azimuth ambiguity suppression and GMTI

The German synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite TerraSAR-X provides the option to split the antenna in along-track direction and sample two physical channels separately. In the so-called dual receive antenna (DRA) mode the redundant receiver unit is used as the second channel and the fore and aft channel data are combined by use of a hybrid junction. Therefore, the fore and aft channel data have to be reconstructed in the processing. In this paper first results on the ground moving target indication (GMTI) capability of the TerraSAR-X DRA mode employing a channel reconstruction procedure based on internal calibration pulses and calibration beams are shown. Since usually with GMTI applications also a SAR image of the scene is required, the system configuration for optimum SAR imaging versus optimum GMTI is discussed.