Range of applications of a K/sub a/-band interferometric synthetic aperture radar

The present paper gives a detailed description of the concept, end-to-end design, and range of applications of a high resolution Ka-band interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR). The study is based on an existing system called AeS-1, which is working in X-band at 9.55 GHz and has been designed and manufactured by Aero-Sensing Radarsysteme GmbH, Germany. This radar system is configured as a two-antennae single-pass interferometric SAR with a ground resolution up to 0.5 m /spl times/ 0.5 m and a height accuracy up to 5 cm. It was first flown in August 1996 and has been in operational use since October 1996. In numerous flight campaigns, data covering several hundred thousands of km/sup 2/ have been acquired, processed to georectified digital elevation models and radiometrically calibrated SAR magnitude images, and finally post processed to value-added products like height, contour maps, topographic map sheets or city models.