MEO SAR

System Concepts and Analysis

Journal article (2020)

Authors

Jalal Matar Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. (DLR)
Marc Rodriguez-Cassola Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. (DLR)
Gerhard Krieger Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. (DLR)
Paco López-Dekker Mathematical Geodesy and Positioning - CEG
Alberto Moreira Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. (DLR)
Research Group
Mathematical Geodesy and Positioning (CEG) (TU Delft)
Copyright: © 2020 Jalal Matar, Marc Rodriguez-Cassola, Gerhard Krieger, F.J. Lopez Dekker, Alberto Moreira
DOI
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https://doi.org/10.1109/TGRS.2019.2945875
SAR Coverage Space radiation System performance Medium-Earth-orbit (MEO) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) Orbits
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Published Date

01-02-2020

Language

English

Reuse Rights

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Faculty

Civil Engineering & Geosciences

Department

Geoscience and Remote Sensing

Research Group

Mathematical Geodesy and Positioning

Abstract

Existing microwave remote sensing instruments used for Earth observation face a clear tradeoff between spatial resolution and revisit times at global scales. The typical imaging capabilities of current systems range from daily observations at kilometer-scale resolutions provided by scatterometers to meter-scale resolutions at lower temporal rates (more than ten days) typical of synthetic aperture radars (SARs). A natural way to fill the gap between these two extremes is to use medium-Earth-orbit SAR (MEO-SAR) systems. MEO satellites are deployed at altitudes above the region of low Earth orbits (LEOs), ending at around 2000 km and below the geosynchronous orbits (GEOs) near 35 786 km. MEO SAR shows a clear potential to provide advantages in terms of spatial coverage, downlink visibility, and global temporal revisit times, e.g., providing moderate resolution images (some tens of meters) at daily rates. This article discusses the design tradeoffs of MEO SAR, including sensitivity and orbit selection. The use of these higher orbits opens the door to global coverage in one- to two-day revisit or continental/oceanic coverage with multidaily observations, making MEO SAR very attractive for future scientific missions with specific interferometric and polarimetric capabilities.

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