Global Maps from Interferometric TanDEM-X Data: Applications and Potentials

Abstract

TanDEM-X is a spaceborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) mission, whose goal is the generation of a global Digital Elevation Model (DEM) with unprecedented accuracy, by using interferometric SAR (InSAR) techniques (InSAR). TanDEM-X offers a huge global data set of bistatic InSAR acquisitions, each of them supplemented by quicklook images of different SAR quantities, such as amplitude, coherence, and DEM. Global quicklook mosaics of the interferometric coherence and of the relative height error can be considered for mission performance monitoring and acquisition strategy optimization. The aim of this paper is to present the use of such mosaics within the TanDEM-X mission and to show their potentials for future scientific applications for example in the fields of glaciology and forestry.