Airborne dual-frequency polarimetric and interferometric SAR

An airborne X- and L-band synthetic aperture radar system was developed by the Communications Research Laboratory and the National Space Development A gency of Japan in their joint project from 1993 to 1996. It is installed in the airplane, Gulfstream II. In both the azimuth and range directions, the resolution ie 1.5 m for the X-band and 3 m for the L-band. Both SARs can m ake fully polarimetric observations. The X-band SAR has a cross-track inter ferometric function. In this paper we describe the SAR system, its ground p rocessing system, and its performance. We also discuss motion compensation and interferogram quality.