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About TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X
TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X are German radar satellites from DLR (the German Aerospace Center). TerraSAR-X launched in 2007 and was joined by TanDEM-X in 2010. Both satellites remain operational. The twin satellites feature a unique geometric accuracy that is unmatched by any other spaceborne sensor.
| Launch Date | TerraSAR-X: 15 June 2007 TanDEM-X: 21 June 2010 |
| Orbit Height | 514 km at equator |
| Orbit Repeat Cycle | 11 days |
| Orbit Inclination | 97.44° |
| Ascending node / equatorial crossing time | 15:00 ± 0.25h (local) |
TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X are part of ESA's Third Party Missions Programme, in which ESA has an agreement to distribute data products from the missions.
TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X Objectives
Flying in close formation, the objective of the TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X satellites is to simultaneously image Earth's terrain from different angles with unprecedented accuracy for research and development purposes as well as scientific and commercial applications.
TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X Instruments
The primary payload on the TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X satellites is an X-band radar sensor. This instrument allows the satellites to acquire images with different swath widths, resolutions and polarisations.
The TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X SAR instrument is an active phased array X-band antenna system with operational modes of 'stripmap', 'spotlight' and 'scanSAR' permitting the acquisition of high-resolution imagery as well as of wide-swath imagery.
| Spotlight HS mode | SpotlightSL mode | Experimental Spotlight | Stripmap mode (SM) | ScanSAR mode (SC) | |
| Resolution, cross-track Resolution, along-track | 2m 1m | 2m 1m | 1m 1m | 3m 3m | 16m 16m |
| Product coverage, (km) along-track x cross-track | 5 x 10 | 10 x 10 | 5 x 10 | = 1500x 30 | = 1500x 100 |
TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X Data
DATA COLLECTIONS
ESA is offering, for scientific research and application development, access to Full archive and New Tasking data from TerraSAR-X and Tandem-X missions depending on submission and acceptance of a project proposal.
ESA will support as many high-quality and innovative projects as possible within the available quota limit, therefore, only a limited amount of products can be made available to each project from the below collections.
Registered users can have access to the TerraSAR-X ESA archive through the online dissemination server.
The archive continues to grow as ESA collects and stores new products.
DATA TOOLS
Tools available for visualising, processing and analysing TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X data:
PolSARpro
TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X data can be processed using the PolSARpro tool. PolSARpro (Polarimetric SAR data Processing and Education) supports the scientific exploitation of polarimetric SAR data and is a tool for high-level education in radar polarimetry.