Advancements in PRISM: DLR processing framework for interferometric SAR missions

Abstract

PRISM (PRocessor for Interferometric SAR Missions) is the new SAR processing framework developed at the Microwaves and Radar institute of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) [1]. This framework allows efficient and accurate processing of SAR data up to interferogram generation. Moreover, the software design has been studied to allow in a flexible way to handle SAR data independently on the sensor and the mode with which they have been acquired. This is paramount in order to process the large variety of data acquired with different sensors and, more important, to tackle challenges that future missions like NISAR (USA/India), BIOMASS (ESA), Harmony (ESA) and ROSE-L (ESA) will present. In this paper, the two main components of PRISM, the focusing and interferometric chain, are recalled along with a description of the processor software architecture. Latest results achieved with simulated ROSE-L data, and ALOS data will be shown.