Role of the Orbital Tube in Interferometric Spaceborne SAR Missions

Journal article (2015)

Authors

Pau Prats-Iraola Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR)
Marc Rodriguez-Cassola Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR)
Francesco De Zan Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR)
Rolf Scheiber Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR)
Paco López-Dekker Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR)
Itziar Barat European Space Agency (ESA)
Dirk Geudtner European Space Agency (ESA)
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External organisation
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Published Date

01-07-2015

Language

English

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Abstract

The orbit for Earth observation satellite synthetic aperture radar (SAR) missions is maintained within an Earth-fixed orbital tube to ensure ground-track coverage repeatability and, consequently, to enable repeat-pass interferometric compatibility between data takes. In this letter, it is shown that the size of the orbital tube may affect the interferometric performance in terms of azimuth spectral decorrelation and azimuth coregistration accuracy under the presence of squint. These effects require special consideration for SAR burst modes, such as ScanSAR or TOPS (i.e., Terrain Observation by Progressive Scans). This letter presents and analyzes these aspects in the frame of the Sentinel-1 mission.