ESA's Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission was launched 2 Nov 2009 and, to date, is still in good health, providing valuable L-band observations of the Earth surface [1]. A number of products are obtained from these, including thin sea ice [2], frost/thaw soils [3], high winds [4], ocean surface wind [5] and Sun brightness temperature [6], besides the main mission measurements of soil moisture and sea surface salinity [7][8]. This paper deals with the description and early results of some technology activities conducted by ESA applying the lessons learnt by SMOS and in preparation of an advanced L-band radiometer mission.
Resumen: PAZ es un satélite con un sensor SAR en banda X como instrumento principal. Altamente flexible, el radar es capaz de proporcionar imágenes SAR de alta calidad con una gran diversidad de tamaños, desde los 5 km hasta los 200 km, con resoluciones desde unos 30 m para productos con una alta cobertura hasta valores alrededor del metro e incluso del orden de varios centímetros en el caso de muy alta resolución. Este artículo describe las actividades de validación y las prestaciones esperadas de PAZ a partir de los ensayos en tierra.Palabras clave: PAZ, SAR, radar, instrumentos, teledetección activa.
Qualification and Validation of the performances of the SAR instrument on board PAZAbstract: PAZ is a satellite with a highly flexible X band SAR as primary instrument. The radar is capable of generating high quality SAR images with sizes ranging from 5 km to 200 km and resolutions from 30 m for products with high coverage to values around 1m or even in the order of several cm in the case of very high resolution products. This paper describes the validation activities and the expected quality performances based on the tests performed on-ground.
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