TanDEM-X Acquisition Planning and DEM Performance in the Third Year of Operation

TanDEM-X is a spaceborne SAR mission with the goal to derive a global Digital Elevation Model (DEM). The two incorporated satellites fly in a close formation with distances of around 500 m. These small baselines form a single pass bistatic interferometer for accurate DEM acquisitions. The final DEM product will enter a new level of detail and accuracy on a global scale. The absolute height error shall be less than 10 m in a 90% confidence interval at a pixel spacing of 12 m. The vertical height specification for the TanDEM-X mission foresees a 90% point-to-point error of 2 m (4 m) for areas with predominant terrain slopes smaller than 20% (greater than 20%) for a 1° by 1° cell. This presentation gives an overview about the planning and the actual status of the global DEM acquisition. This includes the acquisition plan after the first two years of operation, i. e. two global coverages, including the acquisitions of the Antarctica and difficult terrain. Also, the actual performance status in terms of absolute and relative height error and the narrow relation between the DEM acquisition planning and the performance evaluation is presented

Oceanographic Data Retrieval with Tandem-L

Monitoring of the manifold dynamic processes on the Earths surface is essential for characterizing and quantifying environmental changes and climate variability. Tandem-L has been proposed as a highly innovative L-band SAR satellite mission to provide observations and data products of unprecedented resolution, quality and revisit rates for the geosphere, biosphere, cryosphere and hydrosphere. In this paper we analyze the potential of Tandem-L for oceanographic applications

The Future of TanDEM-X: Final DEM and Beyond

The goal of TanDEM-X to acquire the data for the generation of a global, high-accurate, and homogeneous digital elevation model (DEM) of the Earth’s surface has been accomplished in 2014. The following 1.5 years were dedicated to scientific exploitation of the mission. Thanks to the flexibility of operating the two satellites in different interferometric and imaging constellations, several experimental modes were realized. These data is used in several scientific applications ranging from geology to oceanography in order to demonstrate new and innovative SAR techniques. In the following years the bistatic formation will be used to acquire DEMs with even higher Resolution and further improve relative accuracy in local areas. In Addition, temporally Independent updates of parts of the global DEM will be provided. This paper provides an overview of the DEM acquisition status together with the plans for the upcoming years of the mission

Tandem-L Observation Concept - An Acquisition Scenario for the Global Scientific Mapping Machine

The paper describes the acquisition scenario for the Tandem-L mission and shows how the mission serves the various scientific applications

Tandem-L Observation Concept - Contributions and Challenges of Systematic Monitoring of Earth System Dynamics

Tandem-L is a proposal for a spaceborne L-band SAR mission that aims at the global monitoring of dynamic processes on the Earth. The mission will acquire an enormous amount of data for different applications. These data will be used to provide information concerning biosphere, geosphere, cryosphere, and hydrosphere. Within the scope of this mission, an observation concept has to be developed in order to fulfill all the scientific requirements and clarify the necessary system resources. A sophisticated planning and optimization process has been implemented. It combines the predetermined satellite resources, ground station network, and the scientific requirements to generate an acquisition timeline on individual data take level. The resulting timeline fulfills all requirements for the various scientific applications and can be used to analyze different aspects of the mission, e.g. data volumes and orbit usage are necessary to refine the on-board and ground resources