Bulletin des sciences géographiques de l'INCT
Volume 13, Numéro 1, Pages 57-62
2009-09-30

Terrasar-x And Tandem-x: Revolution In Spaceborne Radar

Authors : Hensler Frank . Weber Marco .

Abstract

Commercially available imagery is and will remain indispensable to civilian and military organizations gat hering various types of geospatial information. Whether fulfilling international agree­ ments. providing military contingents in international peacekecping or humanitarian missions. or conducting joint technical exercises with other countries - a reliable access to timely, high resolution remote sensing data is an essential basis for well-informed decision making, particularly in time-critical situations. Today, organizations with those needs customarily resort to high resolution data acquired by optical sensors - often a lengthy operation. The radar satellite TerraSAR-X, and at a later stage together with TanDEM-X with it's complementary near-real time data acquisition capabilities, offer a whole new approach to the use of space-bome datasets for mapping purposes in time-critical situations.

Keywords

TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X: Revolution in Spaceborne Radar