Abstract
The TanDEM-X mission, formed by the TanDEM-X satellite in cooperation with its almost identical twin TerraSAR-X (TSX), has mainly been designed to acquire bistatic synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images of the Earth. Initiated in 2010, the primary mission objectives were to generate a global digital elevation model (DEM) to perform scientific measurements and to explore novel SAR techniques. Up to the present day, all these objectives have been completed with outstanding results. In addition, the satellites maintained a stable image quality from the start throughout their entire lifetime. The ground segment, which was tailored to the capabilities of the space segment, as well as an excellent design and manufacturing of the satellites were the key elements to achieve such a performance. In addition, the elaborate calibration concept and a careful treatment of the on-board resources enabled full operability up to the present day and allowed additional mission objectives such as the generation of a Change-DEM layer as an update to the global DEM. The stable bus and SAR payload performance as revealed by long-term system monitoring provide the basis for further extension of the TanDEM-X mission for several more years. In the following paper, these long-term system monitoring results are presented to provide an overview of the evolution of the radar system. The results and experience gained with more than a decade of TanDEM-X mission operation are a great value for both the scientific and commercial community and serve as a forerunner for the development of future SAR missions.
Highlights
L AUNCHED on 21st June 2010, one of the main purposes of the TanDEM-X satellite (TDX) is to acquire bistatic images of the surface of the Earth
The reasons for the flexibility of the TanDEM-X mission are the excellent manufacturing of the satellite systems [7] and the design of the ground segment [8], which is able to exploit all of the capabilities of the satellite bus and the radar instrument [9]
The TanDEM-X mission was designed as TerraSAR-X addon for digital elevation measurements to generate digital elevation model (DEM) of all Earth’s landmasses, to perform scientific campaigns and as demonstrator for innovative synthetic aperture radar (SAR) techniques to develop future SAR missions
Summary
L AUNCHED on 21st June 2010, one of the main purposes of the TanDEM-X satellite (TDX) is to acquire bistatic images of the surface of the Earth. The reasons for the flexibility of the TanDEM-X mission are the excellent manufacturing of the satellite systems [7] and the design of the ground segment [8], which is able to exploit all of the capabilities of the satellite bus and the radar instrument [9] Both satellites have by far exceeded their designed lifetime of 5.5 years, SAR image quality, and DEM accuracy are still exceptional and remain unchanged. To guarantee such a stability and the reliability of these highly accurate SAR data products, both SAR systems were first accurately calibrated during their own commissioning phase in 2007 [10] and in 2010 [11] respectively, and have been permanently monitored since . The overview and all the results that are presented are based on an efficient and robust calibration approach [14] as well as long-term system monitoring, performed in quarterly intervals since the launch of each satellite and summarized in dedicated long-term system monitoring reports
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