Radiometric Performance of the TerraSAR-X Mission over More Than Ten Years of Operation

Abstract

The TerraSAR-X mission, based on two satellites, has produced SAR data products of high quality for a number of scientific and commercial applications for more than ten years. To guarantee the stability and the reliability of these highly accurate SAR data products, both systems were first accurately calibrated during their respective commissioning phases and have been permanently monitored since then. Based on a short description of the methods applied, this paper focuses on the radiometric performance including the gain and phase properties of the transmit/receiver modules, the antenna pattern checked by evaluating scenes acquired over uniformly distributed targets and the radiometric stability derived from permanently deployed point targets. The outcome demonstrates the remarkable performance of both systems since their respective launch.

Keywords

• TerraSAR-X
• internal calibration
• geometric and radiometric calibration
• antenna model verification
• antenna pointing determination
• radiometric accuracy
• calibration targets
• long term performance monitoring