ASAR Wide Swath Mode Interferometry: Optimisation of the scan pattern synchronisation
Rosich, Betlem¹; Monti Guarnieri, Andrea²; D'Aria, Dario³; Duesmann, Berthyl⁴; Navas, Ignacio⁵; Vazzana, Sergio^1
1ESA ESRIN; ²Politecnico di Milano; ³Aresys s.r.l; ⁴ESA ESTEC; ⁵RHEA

The availability of single look complex ENVISAT ScanSAR product (WSS) has opened new possibilities for interferometric applications requiring large scale analysis and short revisit time. However, ScanSAR interferometry requires the scan pattern to be synchronized between interferometric acquisitions, which was not a design requirement for ENVISAT ASAR. Nevertheless, a preliminary analysis shown that the amount of sufficiently synchronized ASAR WSM data was much higher than expected. This is a consequence of the accurate ENVISAT orbit control and the systematic acquisition plan applied over certain areas of the world. To further increase the percentage of WSM data with sufficient synchronization, the mission planning system has been slightly modified and WSM acquisitions are planned according to the new strategy since mid November 2006. This paper presents the requirements for ASAR ScanSAR burst synchronization, the modifications introduced in the mission planning, the improvement in the synchronization percentage and finally, it provides some ASAR ScanSAR interferometric results.