Interferometric Processing of Sentinel-1A TOPS Data

Abstract

The European radar satellite Sentinel 1A was launched in April 2014 as the first of the Copernicus Space Component. A second satellite (B unit) will follow in 2015. Both carry an imaging C-band SAR instrument. The Sentinel 1 system has been conceived to provide repeat-pass interferometric capabilities with wide area coverage for medium resolution applications. Wide-swath is achieved by employing the novel TOPS (Terrain Observation by Progressive Scans) acquisition mode. The repeat cycle has been reduced notably from 35 days for ERS-1 and ERS-2 or 30 days for ENVISAT to 12 days for S1A, and can still be reduced effectively to 6 days when both units are in space. This supposes an exceptional temporal sampling, allowing a vast range of applications, like the study of Earthquakes, monitoring of volcanoes, glaciers and ground deformation, etc… Our contribution describes the interferometric processing chain developed at the Remote Sensing Technology Institute at DLR. Interesting examples and the interferometric potential of the Sentinel 1A are presented.