© Copyright Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers 2003
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On the suitability of TerraSAR-X split
antenna mode for current measurements by along-track interferometry
Romeiser, R. Breit, H. Eineder, M. Runge, H. Flament, P. De Jong, K. Vogelzang, J.
Inst. of Oceanogr., Hamburg Univ., Germany
This paper appears in: Geoscience
and Remote Sensing Symposium, 2003. IGARSS '03. Proceedings. 2003 IEEE
International
Publication Date: 21-25 July 2003
Pages: 1320 - 1322
Volume: 2
Abstract:
Latest
concepts for the TerraSAR-X hardware design include the availability of
a
split antenna mode, in which the fore and aft halves of the SAR antenna
array
with a total length of 4.8 m can act as separate receiving antennas for
along-track
interferometry (ATI). The effective ATI time lag is 0.17 ms. We discuss
in
this paper whether the split antenna mode is suitable for ocean current
measurements.
Typical (tidal) currents in coastal areas are on the order of 1 to 2
m/s.
To measure them, the ATI time lag should ideally be 20 times longer
than
the time lag of TerraSAR-X. Furthermore, the backscattered power from
the
ocean at low wind speeds can be below the noise floor of the
instrument.
However, the high resolution of TerraSAR-X permits averaging over many
pixels
to reduce noise. Simulated data products suggest that TerraSAR-X is
capable
of measuring currents with satisfactory accuracy at a spatial
resolution
of about 1 km, which is sufficient for many applications.
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