Global Mosaics from TanDEM-X Quicklook Data: First Results and Potentials

Abstract:
TanDEM-X is a spaceborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) mission, whose goal is the generation of a global Digital Elevation Model (DEM) with unprecedented accuracy, by using interferometric SAR techniques. TanDEM-X offers a huge global data set of multiple InSAR acquisitions, each of them supplemented by quicklook images of different SAR quantities, such as amplitude, coherence, and DEM. Global quicklook mosaics of the interferometric coherence and of the relative height error can be considered for mission performance monitoring and acquisition strategy optimization. The aim of this paper is to present the first results obtained from global TanDEM-X quicklook mosaics and to show the potentials for optimizing the mission strategy and for future scientific applications.