TanDEM-X Commissioning Phase Status

Abstract

TanDEM-X is an Earth Observation mission, result of the cooperation of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and EADS Astrium GmbH, consisting of two twin synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites, TerraSAR-X (TSX) and TanDEM-X (TDX). TSX has been operative since 2007, and TDX has been launched on the first half of 2010. Both satellites fly in a versatile, configurable and closely controlled helix orbit formation in order to acquire single-pass cross-track interferometric SAR (InSAR) images of the Earth with the optimal performance. The goal is to generate a global highly accurate digital elevation model (DEM) with 12 m resolution, 10 m absolute- and 2 m relative-height accuracy. This has to be achieved over the whole Earth’s land surface within 4 years after launch. In order to assure the accurate completion of this DEM product, TDX has to undertake a precise commissioning phase in a tight time schedule. The commissioning phase activities range from the monostatic calibration (analogue to the one performed for TSX) to the commissioning of bistatic aspects like the innovative flight formation, the collision avoidance strategy, the upgraded mission planning and ground station network, the synchronization performance, the baseline calibration and the illumination risk handling. The paper describes the status of this challenging commissioning phase and a detailed description of the main phases and activities.