Spaceborne Radar Technologies for Earth Remote Sensing

Abstract

Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is an indispensable source of information in earth observation since SAR is the only spaceborne sensor that has highresolution, all-weather and day-and-night imaging capability. Within the next 10 years more than 20 spaceborne SAR systems from different nations will be launched. Increased demand for larger swath width and higher geometric resolution poses contracting requirements on the system design. This paper gives an overview of the latest developments on the digital beamforming technique that allows overcoming the fundamental limitations of conventional SAR systems. Finally, this paper summarizes the potential of bi- and multi-static SAR systems and gives an outlook on the TanDEM-X mission.