The RADARSAT-2&3 interferometric mission

The Canadian Space Agency and MacDonald Dettwiler Associates (MDA) have just completed a definition study for the proposed RADARSAT-2/3 tandem interferometric mission. The objective of the mission is to provide a global Digital Elevation Model of the Earth compliant to US National Imaging and Mapping Agency (NIMA) Digital Terrain Elevation Data Level 3 (DTED-3) specification. The main requirements are to achieve a global accuracy better than 10 m (at 90% confidence level), relative accuracy of 2.0 m and 10 m nominal post-spacing. The paper gives an overview of the tandem mission, and presents a summary of technical investigations carried out by MDA on the mode of operation, the performance assessment, the orbit definition and the interferometric processing.