SAR imaging of archeological sites on dry-fallen intertidal flats in the German Wadden Sea

After major storm surges in the 14^th and 17^th centuries, vast areas on the German North Sea coast were lost to the sea. However, remnants of former settlements and of historical landuse, which were buried by sediments for several centuries, can still be found in the German Wadden Sea, if the surface layer is driven away under the permanent action of wind, currents, and waves. We show that high-resolution SAR imagery with pixel sizes well below 1 m² can be used to complement archeological surveys and that TerraSAR/ TanDEM-X images clearly show remnants of farmhouse foundations and of former systems of ditches, dating back to the 14^th century and to the 16^th/17^th century. In particular, the new high-resolution TerraSAR-X acquisition mode (`staring spotlight´) allows for the detection of various kinds of residuals of historical landuse, some of which have been unknown so far.