In-Orbit SAR Performance of TerraSAR-X

TerraSAR-X is the first German Radar satellite for scientific and commercial applications. The project is a public-private partnership between DLR and EADS Astrium GmbH. TerraSAR-X consists of a high resolution Synthetic Aperture Radar at X-Band. The radar antenna is based on active phased array technology that allows the control of many different instrument parameters and operational modes (Stripmap, ScanSAR and Spotlight) with various polarizations. Following the TerraSAR-X launch, scheduled for February 2007, it is planned a six month Commissioning Phase covering the characterization and verification of the SAR mission. Within this phase, the Overall SAR System Performance (OSSP) takes care of the correct working and interaction of all SAR system elements essential for obtaining an optimum SAR Performance. The paper covers the first in-orbit characterization and verification results of the SAR system performance for TerraSAR-X operational and experimental modes. This characterization is divided into four phases: Initial Characterization, Scene Characterization –both mostly based on basic and experimental products-, and Verification of TS-X Instrument Command Generation. The different optimization strategies and performance trade-offs are discussed and presented in the paper, including very first TerraSAR-X images. The result of the real SAR data analysis determines the final system baseline and thus the final image quality, e.g. Temperature compensation, Total Zero Doppler Steering, Up/down chirp toggling, transmitted bandwidth, timing interferences, etc. The first section of the paper introduces the activities carried out during the Commissioning Phase for the TerraSAR-X SAR system performance characterization/verification. In the second section, the strategies for the performance optimization and characterization are presented. Finally, the in-orbit SAR performance results are given in section three

Building profile reconstruction using TerraSAR-X data time-series and tomographic techniques

This work aims to show the potentialities of SAR Tomography (TomoSAR) techniques for the 3-D characterization (height, reflectivity, time stability) of built-up areas using data acquired by the satellite sensor TerraSAR-X. For this purpose 19 TerraSAR-X single-polarimetric multibaseline images acquired over Paris urban area have been processed applying classical nonparametric (Beamforming and Capon) and parametric (MUSIC) spectral estimation techniques

Impacts of Radar Echoes on Internal Calibration Signals in the TerraSAR-X Instrument

For calibrating and monitoring the required radiometric stability, the radar instrument of TerraSAR-X features an internal calibration facility coupling into an additional port of the TRMs. Calibration pulses are routed through the front-end to characterise critical elements and parameters of the transmit (TX) and receive (RX) path. Changes in the signal path appear due to thermal effects, degradation, or extreme conditions in space. Especially the front-end TRMs controlling the phased array antenna are of crucial significance for the instrument reliability. There are many indications that the interference of the RX-Calibration signals is caused by an echo from a transmitted TerraSAR-X chirp pulse of the same data take. As consequently implemented in the TerraSAR-X system, different approaches solve these effects of signal interference. In orbit, the commanding sequence can be optimised for avoiding interference. At processing level, averaging techniques minimise the noise effects inside the calibration signals. This paper presents the effects of the radar echoes on the whole internal calibration process and how they can be detected and minimised

Toward an Operational Bare Soil Moisture Mapping Using TerraSAR-X Data Acquired Over Agricultural Areas

International audienceTerraSAR-X data are processed for an "operational" mapping of bare soils moisture in agricultural areas. Empirical relationships between TerraSAR-X signal and soil moisture were established and validated over different North European agricultural study sites. The results show that the mean error on the soil moisture estimation is less than 4% regardless of the TerraSAR-X configuration (incidence angle, polarization) and the soil surface characteristics (soil surface roughness, soil composition). Furthermore, the potential of TerraSAR-X data (signal, texture features) to discriminate bare soils from other land cover classes in an agricultural watershed was evaluated. The mean signal backscattered from bare soils can be easily differentiated from signals from other land cover classes when the neighboring plots are covered by fully developed crops. This was observed regardless of the TerraSAR-X configuration and the soil moisture conditions. When neighboring plots are covered by early growth crops, a TerraSAR-X image acquired under wet conditions can be useful for discriminating bare soils. Bare soil masks were calculated by object-oriented classifications ofmono-configuration TerraSAR-Xdata. The overall accuracies of the bare soils mapping were higher than 84% for validation based on object and pixel. The bare soils mapping method and the soil moisture relationships were applied to TerraSAR-X images to generate soil moisture maps. The results show that TerraSAR-X sensors provide useful data for monitoring the spatial variations of soil moisture at the within-plot scale. The methods of bare soils moisture mapping developed in this paper can be used in operational applications in agriculture, and hydrology

TerraSAR-X Capabilities in Polar Regions

DLR participates in a coordinated plan established by the space agencies for the optimum use of SAR acquisitions over the Artic and Antarctica for the remaining period of IPY and beyond. Due to the specific advantages of the X-band in respect to snow and ice properties and the high spatial resolution of the data, the contribution of TerraSAR-X focuses on topics like mapping of seasonal snow cover at high latitudes, ice sheet velocity, velocity fields of slow and fast moving glaciers, permafrost, generation of DEMs, sea ice classification. These are reflected in a coordinated proposal which is prepared by DLR and the scientific community as part of the common polar SAR acquisition plan

Sentinel-1 Imaging Performance Verification with TerraSAR-X

This paper presents dedicated analyses of TerraSAR-X data with respect to the Sentinel-1 TOPS imaging mode. First, the analysis of Doppler centroid behaviour for high azimuth steering angles, as occurs in TOPS imaging, is investigated followed by the analysis and compensation of residual scalloping. Finally, the Flexible-Dynamic BAQ (FD-BAQ) raw data compression algorithm is investigated for the first time with real TerraSAR-X data and its performance is compared to state-of-the-art BAQ algorithms. The presented analyses demonstrate the improvements of the new TOPS imaging mode as well as the new FD-BAQ data compression algorithm for SAR image quality in general and in particular for Sentinel-1

Analysis of TerraSAR-X data sensitivity to bare soil moisture, roughness, composition and soil crust

Le comportement du signal radar TerraSAR-X en fonction des paramètres du sol (rugosité, humidité, structure) a été analysé sur des données 2009 et 2010. Les résultats montrent que la sensibilité du signal radar à l'humidité est plus importante pour des faibles incidences (25° en comparaison à 50°). Pour des fortes valeurs d'humidité, le signal TerraSAR-X est plus sensible à la rugosité du sol à forte incidence (50°). La forte résolution spatiale des données TerraSAR-X (1 m) permet de détecter la croûte de battance à l'échelle intra parcellaire. / Soils play a key role in shaping the environment and in risk assessment. We characterized the soils of bare agricultural plots using TerraSAR-X (9.5 GHz) data acquired in 2009 and 2010. We analyzed the behavior of the TerraSAR-X signal for two configurations, HH-25° and HH-50°, with regard to several soil conditions: moisture content, surface roughness, soil composition and soil-surface structure (slaking crust).The TerraSAR-X signal was more sensitive to soil moisture at a low (25°) incidence angle than at a high incidence angle (50°). For high soil moisture (N25%), the TerraSAR-X signal was more sensitive to soil roughness at a high incidence angle (50°) than at a low incidence angle (25°). The high spatial resolution of the TerraSAR-X data (1 m) enabled the soil composition and slaking crust to be analyzed at the within-plot scale based on the radar signal. The two loamy-soil categories that composed our training plots did not differ sufficiently in their percentages of sand and clay to be discriminated by the X-band radar signal.However, the spatial distribution of slaking crust could be detected when soil moisture variation is observed between soil crusted and soil without crust. Indeed, areas covered by slaking crust could have greater soil moisture and consequently a greater backscattering signal than soils without crust

The TerraSAR-X Mission and System Design

This paper describes the TerraSAR-X Mission Concept within the context of a public-private-partnership (PPP) agreement between the German Aerospace Center DLR and industry. It briefly describes the PPP-concept as well as the overall project organization. The paper then gives an overview of the satellite design, the corresponding Ground Segment as well as the main mission parameters. After a short introduction to the scientific and commercial exploitation scheme, the paper finally focuses on the mission accomplishments achieved so far during the ongoing mission