TerraSAR-X technologies and first results

TerraSAR-X is a satellite that is scheduled to be launched in October 2006 and is currently being built in the framework of a public-private partnership between the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) and EADS Astrium GmbH Germany and will carry an X-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) instrument equipped with an active phased array antenna. Its operational flexibility will allow the use of the instrument for scientific and commercial applications. High amplitude and phase stability of the radar instrument is achieved by a carbon fibre reinforced plastic slotted waveguide radiator and a high precision transmit/receive module. Additionally, internal calibration hardware will allow for determination of the residual drifts. Precise central electronics controls the radar instrument, provides an arbitrary transmit chirp and receives the radar echo with selectable bandwidth and raw data compression ratio. The ground station´s multimode SAR processor is supported by a novel satellite steering law to reduce the attitude-dependent mean Doppler shift. This article summarises the EUSAR 2004 TerraSAR-X contributions.