Absolute calibration of the fast-delivery SAR product processed at Tromso satellite station

Dan Johan Weydahl

doi:10.1117/12.197555

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21 December 1994 Absolute calibration of the fast-delivery SAR product processed at Tromso satellite station

Dan Johan Weydahl

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Proceedings Volume 2316, SAR Data Processing for Remote Sensing; (1994) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.197555
Event: Satellite Remote Sensing, 1994, Rome, Italy

Abstract

Tromso Satellite Station (TSS) is the Norwegian national receiving station for ERS-1 SAR data. The TSS Fast Delivery (FD) SAR processor was upgraded during spring 1994 so that the whole processing chain will now be performed in power rather than in voltage. This new FD SAR product from TSS needs absolute calibration, and a calibration constant is therefore estimated. First, a TSS Power-processed ERS-1 SAR image was used. This image covers the ESA transponders in Flevoland. The integration method was used to estimate the backscattered power from the 3 transponders. The Earth ellipsoid, local incidence angle, antenna pattern, range-spread loss, pixel size and RCS were also taken into account in the calculation. The result was a calibration constant of 53.51 dB. An other method is to compare the backscatter from an ESA processed PRI product and a TSS Power-processed FD product acquired at the same place and time. Areas were extracted from two such SAR images, and the pixel values averaged in power. The known calibration constant for the PRI product was used in the comparison of the image products. The calibration constant for the TSS FD product was then found to be 54.20 dB. This is close to the result from using the ESA transponders.

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Dan Johan Weydahl "Absolute calibration of the fast-delivery SAR product processed at Tromso satellite station", Proc. SPIE 2316, SAR Data Processing for Remote Sensing, (21 December 1994); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.197555

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