Calibration of SIR-C/X-SAR data, equipment and planned operation of the Oberpfaffenhofen test site

The SIR-C/X-SAR mission with its simultaneously operating SAR sensors combines diversity in frequency, polarization and incidence angle. This offers unique opportunities for Earth scientists concerning the information content of the corresponding data sets. To obtain the full benefit, the science team requested absolute radiometric calibration of the SAR image data. Therefore, X-SAR project calibration will be done by DLR and also calibration experiments, using both the SIR-C and the X-SAR sensor. The topics discussed cover mainly the work associated with X-SAR calibration including SAR sensor monitoring, cross track antenna pattern determination, test site location and test site instrumentation. These procedures result in adequate radiometric corrections, absolute calibration of the image data in terms of σ° and estimation of the remaining overall system error