-
SAR image of terrain and vegetation
In 1991, the European Space Agency (ESA) launched the remote sensing satellite ERS-1: one of the instruments on-board was the C-band SAR. The ATC was involved with the commissing of the SAR and the subsequent routine phase concentrating on quality assessment, calibration and various investigations.
Similar work has been and is currently being performed on the successor satellite, ERS-2, launched in 1995. A more advanced C-band SAR was launched on the ESA satellite ENVISAT in 2002: this SAR has seven swaths operating in various polarisations, is capable of imaging in a wide swath mode (400km) and has a wave mode and a global monitoring mode.
To aid in our and ESA's work for these spaceborne SARs, BSATC and DLR, Germany have developed a software tool, SARCON (SAR Product and Control Software). The basic features of the software include a product reader, raw data analysis, image mode analysis, wave mode analysis and InSAR. SARCON can esily be modified to read and analyse other spaceborne and airborne SAR imagery.
