Precise Geodetic Positioning of Corner Reflectors and SAR ECR-C with Sentinel-1

Abstract

The past years ESA launched a satellite mission for land and maritime monitoring. This satellite mission is called Sentinel-1 and uses a radar system to collect information regarding surface movements and ice monitoring. SAR observations have been used for many years for detecting changes on the surface. Traditionally, corner reflectors (passive sensors) were used for the geometric and radiometric calibration and verification of SAR sensors. Nowadays, a new active sensor is gaining more attention regarding the SAR system calibration. These sensors are called electronic corner reflectors. Their basic concept is the amplification of the received radar pulse and then the return of it back to the sensor. In this study, both corner reflectors and active radar transponders will be used to retrieve absolute 3-D coordinates in ITRF2014.