Quality Control and Calibration of Future SAR Systems

Kurzfassung

As SAR systems and their operating modes become more complex, new applications place more demands on image quality and our understanding of imperfections improves, there is increasing recognition that more effort is needed to ensure their reliability and to control the quality of the obtained SAR data. Reliability and quality are prerequisites in order to be able to offer users warranties on the products and services provided, a facility of paramount importance for commercial systems. Calibration, performance verification and product validation are the final quality control actions to ensure the quality and reliability of the instrument and its products. These activities do not end with the commissioning of a SAR instrument, and they will extend to the end of life of the satellite, or to the end of the mission. The paper describes this approach and examples of the DLR contributions to CAL/VAL activities for XSAR/SRTM and ENVISAT/ASAR.