TanDEM-X: Mission Status and Science Activities

Abstract

In this paper the status of the science activities and data acquisition strategy as well as the results in terms of demonstration of innovative techniques during the commissioning phase of TanDEM-X will be presented. The focus is on the secondary goals of TanDEM-X that are assigned for data acquisition during the digital elevation model data acquisition phase and the third year of the mission time life. A variety of scientific experiments have been planned to be performed already during the commissioning phase. The scientific experiments are related to bistatic processing, Polarimetric SAR Interferometry, double differential SAR Interferometry, decorrelation measurements, super resolution and velocity measurements. The data quality and the results obtained will be validated and are discussed.