ASAR multi-swath techniques

In 2002 ENVISAT with the advanced SAR (ASAR) as one important instrument was launched. As compared to the preceding SARs on ERS-1 and ERS-2 the ASAR has additional functionality with many different modes. Important aspects of the ASAR include the alternating polarization modes for quasi simultaneous acquisition of data at two different polarizations, and beam-steering capability, which permits to acquire data at different incidence angles. To optimize the use of the new functionality adequate processing techniques are required. This is particularly important for data acquired in different swaths, i.e. with different image geometries. In this paper ASAR multi-swath techniques are discussed, including image co-registration, multi-channel filtering, and multi-swath multi-temporal techniques.