TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X: Reconnaisance Applications

Commercially available imagery is and will remain indispensable to civilian and military organizations gathering intelligence information. Whether fulfilling international agreements, providing contingents in international peacekeeping or humanitarian missions, or conducting joint exercises with other countries - a reliable access to timely, high resolution remote sensing data is an essential basis for well-informed decision making, particularly in time-critical situations. Today, organizations with these needs customarily resort to high resolution data acquired by optical sensors -often a lengthy operation. TerraSAR-X, with it's complementary near-real time data acquisition capabilities, offers a whole new approach to the use of space-borne datasets in time-critical situations: TerraSAR-X delivers unique, novel quality SAR satellite image data with a resolution of up to 1 m, which can significantly augment the capabilities of armed forces and intelligence agencies, creating both tactical and strategic advantages. In order to close the information gap towards the third dimension TanDEM-X (TerraSAR-X Add on for Digital Elevation Measurements) is the new German mission of a sophisticated satellite generation operating at X-band in single pass SAR interferometry. The single pass SAR interferometric constellation is realized by two independent X-band satellites flying in a close formation and has the goal to deliver a global digital elevation model at HRTI-3 specification. The increasing demand of sophisticated geospatial data sets requires appropriate and precise planning documents in all the three dimensions. However, a continuous and up-to-date acquisition by optical sensors is strongly limited by unfavorable weather conditions. Therefore, the easy access to the high-resolution radar missions TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X provides the possibility to participate in one of the most ambitious space programs to the global remote sensing community.