A test case showing a comparison of TerraSAR-X and ground-based weather radar data acquired nearly simultaneously (within the same minute) over New York City. A good agreement between rain-cell signatures in (left) the SAR image and (right) the weather radar image can be observed.

SIGNAL is an innovative earth exploration mission proposal with the main objective to estimate accurately and repeatedly topography and topographic changes associated with mass change or other dynamic effects on glaciers, ice caps and polar ice sheets. Elevation measurements are complemented with glacier velocity measurements, providing valuable additional information for a better understanding of the hydrology of glacierized basins and of the Arctic and Antarctic water cycle. SIGNAL is capable of monitoring all critical regions with a high spatial resolution and an adequate revisit time. This paper gives an overview about the actual mission design status and provides a brief description of the topography (DEM -digital elevation map) selfcalibration strategy and the estimated global interferometric performance.

In this paper we propose some ionospheric correction schemes for space-borne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and polarimetric interferometric SAR (PolInSAR). The spatial and temporal variation of the free electron density in the uppermost atmosphere affects the propagation of the radar pulse resulting in image distortions. We estimate the total electron content (TEC) by applying the Appleton-Hartree equation to the distortions in the focusing, polarimetry, and interferometry. Then we propose a combined estimator that yields comprehensive differential TEC estimations. The effect of vertical structures of the ionosphere on interferometric phase is further discussed.

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Abstract.A method to allow the analysis of the effects of motion and atmospheric errors in SAR images is here presented. The objective of the method is to allow the visualization of the effects of motion errors and atmospheric artefacts on the processed (focused) SAR image. The method is intended to allow the analysis of the interaction of motion and atmospheric errors with the adopted SAR processing procedure and motion compensation algorithms. In this article the analysis method has been applied and tested to a C-Band E-SAR (DLR airborne SAR system) data set where we see that the effects of linear and non-linear phase errors observed are in agreement with the theory.

Abstract-This paper describes an experiment that was carried out in the North

As the operating frequencies of SAR-systems are increasing, the visible distortions due to precipitation in SAR-images are becoming more frequent. This holds especially for the case of convective rain events. The German space-borne satellite TerraSAR-X has delivered a series of measurement examples, which were used to study precipitation effects in SARimages. Based on these valuable data takes and simultaneous weather radar measurements, a quantitative estimation of precipitation effects in SAR-images is presented.In a further step, an attempt is made to extrapolate the observed effects to systems operating at higher nominal frequency-bands, i.e. Ka-band, being taken under consideration for future SARsystems.

To predict the performance of coastal and shipborne radars, it is essential to assess the propagation characteristics of electromagnetic waves in the maritime boundary layer. To be independent upon environmental measurements, which are generally not as precise and reliable as they have to be for a proper input to simulation programs, usually based upon parabolic equation models, a method to retrieve the refractive index gradients in the low troposphere is the Refractivity from Clutter (RFC) algorithm. The propagation factor is computed from the received clutter power and is iteratively processed in order to retrieve the refractive index profiles. Under a respective French-German technical agreement a measurement program concerning radar propagation in the maritime boundary layer has been initiated, with contributions from ONERA-CERT, DGA MI/TN, Fraunhofer-FHR and the German Technical Center for Ships and Naval Weapons (WTD 71). The paper gives an overview on the RFC met hod with examples from the previous campaigns. It describes the experimental set-up and its methodology