The ERS-2 SAR performance: 11 years of operation

Conference: EUSAR 2006 - 6th European Conference on Synthetic Aperture Radar
05/16/2006 - 05/18/2006 at Dresden, Germany

Proceedings: EUSAR 2006

Pages: 4Language: englishTyp: PDF

Personal VDE Members are entitled to a 10% discount on this title

Authors:
Meadows, P. J. (BAE SYSTEMS Advanced Technology Centre, United Kingdom)
Rosich, B. (European Space Agency, Italy)
Santella, C. (Vitrociset S.p.A., Italy)
Miranda, N.; Tranfaglia, M. (Serco S.p.A., Italy)

Abstract:
The European Space Agency (ESA) ERS-2 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) has successfully operated for more than 11 years. The performance of the ERS-SAR is routinely assessed via a variety of quality assessment and calibration measures. This paper gives the latest ERS-2 SAR quality assessment and calibration results, including elevation antenna pattern estimation, updates to ERS-2 SAR internal calibration, stability and noise equivalent radar cross-section measurements. Also given are ERS-2 attitude and SAR Doppler variations following the change from three to one gyroscope operations in February 2000 and the change to gyro-less operations in February 2001.