TerraSAR-X / TanDEM-X Mission and Calibration Status

Abstract:
After more than a decade of successful radar operations in space, the German twin radar satellites TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X continue to deliver SAR products at their well-known excellent image quality, despite the advanced age of both instruments. This high level of data quality relies on a continuous monitoring of the instrument health based on dedicated long-term system monitoring data acquisitions over both natural distributed and man-made point targets. In this presentation we give an overview of the mission status, discuss instrument health and the current calibration status and give an outlook on the planning of the upcoming mission phases.