A MirrorSAR Case Study Based on the X-Band High Resolution Wide Swath Satellite (HRWS)

Abstract:
The paper reports selected results of a concrete MirrorSAR mission analysis study with the planned X-band HRWS satellite as transmitter. The driving goal is a next generation global DEM with a much better performance compared to TanDEM-X. Three small passive receiver satellites are spanning differently sized interferometric baselines by flying interlaced helix orbits. Several system engineering topics associated to the MirrorSAR concept are discussed. The multi-static echo window timing is investigated including the allowed along-track separation between transmitter and receivers. The interaction between helix orbit baseline design, Doppler steering, and phase preserving MirrorSAR link geometry is analyzed. A DEM performance estimation concludes the paper.