Title :
Long term radiometric calibration of ERS-1 SAR
Author :
Keyte, G.E. ; Bird, P.J. ; Kenward, D.R.D.
Author_Institution :
Defence Res. Agency, Farnborough, UK
Abstract :
Accurate radiometric calibration of space SAR is vital for several operational applications such as crop and forest monitoring, and ice classification. In particular, it is important to know whether the SAR calibration is constant over the mission life. This paper presents the results of long term calibration measurements made for ERS-1 SAR, using accurately made trihedral reflectors as calibration targets. The results show that even after correction for all known errors variations in target signatures were observed which may be attributed to variation in gain of the high power amplifier. However these variations seem to be within the overall specification of the instrument
Keywords :
artificial satellites; calibration; geophysical equipment; geophysical techniques; remote sensing; remote sensing by radar; synthetic aperture radar; 5.3 GHz; C-band; ERS-1; SHF; crop; forest; gain; geophysical measurement technique; high power amplifier; instrument; land surface remote sensing; long term radiometric calibration; microwave; mission life; satellite method SAR; synthetic aperture radar; trihedral reflector target; Antenna measurements; Backscatter; Calibration; Geophysical measurements; Moisture measurement; Monitoring; Radiometry; Sea measurements; Soil measurements; Structural beams;
Conference_Titel :
Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, 1993. IGARSS '93. Better Understanding of Earth Environment., International
Conference_Location :
Tokyo
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-1240-6
DOI :
10.1109/IGARSS.1993.322635
