Sentinel-1 Imaging Performance Verification with TerraSAR-X

This paper presents dedicated analyses of TerraSAR-X data with respect to the Sentinel-1 TOPS imaging mode. First, the analysis of Doppler centroid behaviour for high azimuth steering angles, as occurs in TOPS imaging, is investigated followed by the analysis and compensation of residual scalloping. Finally, the Flexible-Dynamic BAQ (FD-BAQ) raw data compression algorithm is investigated for the first time with real TerraSAR-X data and its performance is compared to state-of-the-art BAQ algorithms. The presented analyses demonstrate the improvements of the new TOPS imaging mode as well as the new FD-BAQ data compression algorithm for SAR image quality in general and in particular for Sentinel-1.