First results of multispectral polarimetry and single-pass PolInSAR with the F-SAR airborne SAR instrument

The F-SAR airborne SAR instrument represents the successor of the E-SAR system of the German Aerospace Center (DLR), which has been extensively used in the last three decades. Its development was triggered by the current demand for data being simultaneously acquired at different wavelengths and polarisations, as well as by the demand for very high resolution in the order of decimetres. F-SAR is a modular development utilising the most modern hardware and commercial off the shelf components. F-SAR is designed to operate fully polarimetrically at X-, C-, S-, L- and P-bands and provides single- pass polarimetric interferometric capabilities in X- and S-bands. Additionally, up to four bands can be acquired simultaneously, partly even in polarimetric acquisition modes. This paper aims to present and evaluate the advanced multi-frequency polarimetric capabilities of the F- SAR system, as well as first results of single-pass polarimetric interferometry at X- and S-band.