TanDEM-X Mission: Long Term in Orbit Synchronisation Link Performance Analysis

Conference: EUSAR 2014 - 10th European Conference on Synthetic Aperture Radar
06/03/2014 - 06/05/2014 at Berlin, Germany

Proceedings: EUSAR 2014

Pages: 4Language: englishTyp: PDF

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Authors:
Weigt, Mathias; Grigorov, Christo; Steinbrecher, Ulrich; Schulze, Daniel (Microwaves and Radar Institute, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Germany)

Abstract:
The German satellites TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X are flying in a close orbit formation as a bistatic interferometer to generate a high precision Global Digital Elevation Model (DEM). DEM data is acquired in bistatic operation with one active satellite illuminating the swath and both satellites receiving the ground echoes. This mode requires synchronization between the independent oscillators on TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X, which is achieved by a synchronisation link using horn antennas on both satellites for omnidirectional coverage. This paper describes the synchronisation system and compares and verifies the SNR predictions by evaluating in orbit SNR measurements in different satellite formations.