TanDEM-X: Block adjustment of interferometric height models

Abstract

The TanDEM-X mission will derive a global digital elevation model (DEM) with satellite SAR interferometry. The aimed accuracies are an absolute, resp. relative height error of 10m resp. 2m for 90% of the data. This paper gives an overview of the DEM adjustment within the TanDEM-X mission. The DEM adjustment estimates residual, systematic height offsets and deformations of each single interferometric DEM acquisition. The challenge of calibrating the TanDEM-X DEMs lies in the magnitude of the systematic errors: these errors are in the same order like the random error of about 2 m. For the estimation of the corrections a least-squares adjustment of adjacent interferometric DEMs over a certain earth region is designed. In this paper adjustment results on simulated DEM data are shown to validate the approach. The tests are carried out for different dense ground control point configurations. Further the improvements by a combined adjustment of the two coverages are demonstrated.