TanDEM-X First DEM Acquisition: A Crossing Orbit Experiment

• Published in: IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters
• Main Authors: Lopez-Dekker, Paco, Prats, Pau, De Zan, Francesco, Schulze, Daniel, Krieger, Gerhard, Moreira, Alberto
• Format: Other Non-Article Part of Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers 2011
• Subjects: Radarkonzepte; SAR-Technologie; October Revolution Island
• Online Access: https://elib.dlr.de/69942/; https://elib.dlr.de/69942/1/DePrZaScKrMo_2011.pdf

This letter describes the first interferometric acquisitions and results obtained by the TerraSAR-X add-on for Digital Elevation Measurements mission. Due to the large along-track separation between the two satellites during the approaching maneuver and the Earth's rotation, useful interferometric acquisitions were only possible at high latitudes. This resulted in a crossing angle between the ground tracks whose impact was corrected by acquiring the two synthetic-aperture radar images with an opposite squint. The still very large 2-km cross-track baseline resulted in a 3.8-m interferometric height of ambiguity, producing extremely detailed images of the topography of the target area. Results acquired over the October Revolution Island, Russia, are shown and discussed.