Observation Strategies for TanDEM-X and Tandem-L

Conference: EUSAR 2021 - 13th European Conference on Synthetic Aperture Radar
03/29/2021 - 04/01/2021 at online

Proceedings: EUSAR 2021

Pages: 6Language: englishTyp: PDF

Authors:
Bachmann, Markus; Schandri, Maximilian; Bojarski, Allan; Buckreuss, Stefan; Zink, Manfred (German Aerospace Center (DLR), Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany)

Abstract:
TanDEM-X is a unique mission to derive Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) with two SAR satellites in orbit since 2007 and 2010. The acquisition of the first global DEM was performed until 2014. After a first science phase was performed between 2014 and 2017, an update of the global DEM, called “Change DEM”, was acquired between 2017 and 2020. Currently, a second science phase is carried out concentrating on permafrost areas, forests and the major cities of the world. DLR is also pushing for the time after TanDEM-X with Tandem-L, a proposal for a sophisticated satellite-duo operating in L-band, serving a variety of applications. The paper describes the acquisition concepts for both missions which are of crucial importance for delivering high-quality DEM data to scientific and commercial users.