Germany’s National SAR Satellite System TerraSAR-X

Abstract

TerraSAR-X is Germany's first national remote sensing satellite being implemented in a public-private partnership between the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) and EADS Astrium GmbH, with a significant financial contribution from the industrial partner. This radar satellite, which will be launched in June 2007 will supply high-quality radar data for purposes of scientific observation of the Earth for a period of at least five years. At the same time it is designed to satisfy the steadily growing demand of the private sector for remote sensing data in the commercial market. The TerraSAR-X mission is the continuation of the scientifically and technologically successful radar missions X-SAR (1994) and SRTM (2000) and will bring the national technology developments DESA and TOPAS into operational use. The system design is based on a sound market analysis performed by the Infoterra company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Astrium. The TerraSAR-X features an advanced high-resolution X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar based on the active phased array technology which allows the operation in Spotlight-, Stripmap- and ScanSAR Mode with various polarizations. It combines the ability to acquire high resolution images for detailed analysis as well as wide swath images for overview applications. In addition, experimental modes like the Dual Receive Antenna Mode allow for full-polarimetric imaging as well as along-track interferometry, i.e. moving target identification. The corresponding TerraSAR-X Ground Segment is based on existing national infrastructure as much as possible and will be optimized for flexible response to (scientific and commercial) User requests and fast image product turn-around times. This contribution will briefly describe the development of the TerraSAR-X concept in the context of previous national SAR-related activities, the public-private partnership scheme, the roles and responsibilities of the partners as well as the overall project organization. The mission and system design will be described, followed by an overview of the satellite, the related Ground Segment and the applied data policy. This contribution will however focus on the aspects of the public private partnership, the actual mission status by providing an overview of the pre-launch activities, the Launch and Early Orbit Phase (LEOP). Finally a brief outlook will be given on the activities to come.