Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) has been widely used for Earth remote sensing for more than 30 years. It provides high-resolution, day-and-night and weather-independent images for a multitude of applications ranging from geoscience and climate change research, environmental and Earth system monitoring, 2-D and 3-D mapping, change detection, 4-D mapping (space and time), security-related applications up to planetary exploration. With the advances in radar technology and geo/bio-physical parameter inversion modeling in the 90s, using data from several airborne and spaceborne systems, a paradigm shift occurred from the development driven by the technology push to the user demand pull. Today, more than 15 spaceborne SAR systems are being operated for innumerous applications. This paper provides first a tutorial about the SAR principles and theory, followed by an overview of established techniques like polarimetry, interferometry and differential interferometry as well as of emerging techniques (e.g., polarimetric SAR interferometry, tomography and holographic tomography). Several application examples including the associated parameter inversion modeling are provided for each case. The paper also describes innovative technologies and concepts like digital beamforming, Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) and bi- and multi-static configurations which are suitable means to fulfill the increasing user requirements. The paper concludes with a vision for SAR remote sensing.

TanDEM-X (TerraSAR-X add-on for digital elevation measurements) is an innovative spaceborne radar interferometer that is based on two TerraSAR-X radar satellites flying in close formation. The primary objective of the TanDEM-X mission is the generation of a consistent global digital elevation model (DEM) with an unprecedented accuracy, which is equaling or surpassing the HRTI-3 specification. Beyond that, TanDEM-X provides a highly reconfigurable platform for the demonstration of new radar imaging techniques and applications. This paper gives a detailed overview of the TanDEM-X mission concept which is based on the systematic combination of several innovative technologies. The key elements are the bistatic data acquisition employing an innovative phase synchronization link, a novel satellite formation flying concept allowing for the collection of bistatic data with short along-track baselines, as well as the use of new interferometric modes for system verification and DEM calibration. The interferometric performance is analyzed in detail, taking into account the peculiarities of the bistatic operation. Based on this analysis, an optimized DEM data acquisition plan is derived which employs the combination of multiple data takes with different baselines. Finally, a collection of instructive examples illustrates the capabilities of TanDEM-X for the development and demonstration of new remote sensing applications.

In synthetic aperture radar (SAR) interferometry, the phase differences between two different sensor positions are used to estimate the terrain topography. Although it is possible in this way to find a three-dimensional (3D) surface representation, the distribution of the different scatterers in the height direction at a fixed range and azimuth position remains unknown. Contrary to this, tomographic techniques enable a real geometric resolution capability in the height direction and introduce new possibilities for many applications and inversion problems. Even misinterpretations in SAR images caused by layover and foreshortening effects can be solved by the tomographic processing. In this paper, the successful experimental realization of polarimetric airborne SAR tomography is demonstrated for the first time. The authors present the concept of aperture synthesis for tomographic imaging for the case of a multibaseline imaging geometry and discuss the constraints arising from the limited number of flight tracks. They propose a method for reduction of the height ambiguities associated to the irregular and undersampled spatial distribution of the imaging positions. Finally, they address the experimental requirements for polarimetric airborne SAR tomography and show experimental results using a multibaseline data set acquired in L-band by DLR's experimental SAR (E-SAR) of a test-site near Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany.

The primary objective of the TanDEM-X mission is the generation of a global, consistent, and high-resolution digital elevation model (DEM) with unprecedented global accuracy. The goal is achieved by exploiting the\ud interferometric capabilities of the two twin SAR satellites TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X, which fly in a close orbit formation, acting as an X-band single-pass interferometer. Between December 2010 and early 2015 all\ud land surfaces have been acquired at least twice, difficult terrain up to seven or eight times. The acquisition strategy, data processing, and DEM calibration and mosaicking have been systematically monitored and optimized throughout the entire mission duration, in order to fulfill the specification. The processing of all data has finally been completed in September 2016 and this paper reports on the final performance of the TanDEM-X global DEM and presents the acquisition and processing strategy which allowed to obtain the final DEM quality. The results confirm the outstanding global accuracy of the delivered product, which can be now\ud utilized for both scientific and commercial applications

The displaced phase center (DPC) technique will enable a wide-swath synthetic aperture radar (SAR) with high azimuth resolution. In a classic DPC system, the pulse repetition frequency (PRF) has to be chosen such that the SAR carrier moves just one half of its antenna length between subsequent radar pulses. Any deviation from this PRF will result in a nonuniform sampling of the synthetic aperture. This letter derives an innovative reconstruction algorithm and shows that an unambiguous reconstruction of a SAR signal is possible for nonuniform sampling of the synthetic aperture. This algorithm will also have great potential for multistatic satellite constellations as well as the dual receive antenna mode in Radarsat 2 and TerraSAR-X.

Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is a well-proven imaging technique for remote sensing of the Earth. However, conventional SAR systems are not capable of fulfilling the increasing demands for improved spatial resolution and wider swath coverage. To overcome these inherent limitations, several innovative techniques have been suggested which employ multiple receive-apertures to gather additional information along the synthetic aperture. These digital beamforming (DBF) on receive techniques are reviewed with particular emphasis on the multi-aperture signal processing in azimuth and a multi-aperture reconstruction algorithm is presented that allows for the unambiguous recovery of the Doppler spectrum. The impact of Doppler aliasing is investigated and an analytic expression for the residual azimuth ambiguities is derived. Further, the influence of the processing on the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is analyzed, resulting in a pulse repetition frequency (PRF) dependent factor describing the SNR scaling of the multi-aperture beamforming network. The focus is then turned to a complete high-resolution wide-swath SAR system design example which demonstrates the intricate connection between multi-aperture azimuth processing and the system architecture. In this regard, alternative processing approaches are compared with the multi-aperture reconstruction algorithm. In a next step, optimization strategies are discussed as pattern tapering, prebeamshaping-on-receive, and modified processing algorithms. In this context, the analytic expressions for both the residual ambiguities and the SNR scaling factor are generalized to cascaded beamforming networks. The suggested techniques can moreover be extended in many ways. Examples discussed are a combination with ScanSAR burst mode operation and the transfer to multistatic sparse array configurations.