Severa] ground receiving stations as well as processing and archiving facilities (PAF) have
been or are being constructed at different locations throughout the world. The German PAF
is being established at DLR OberpfafTenhofen. According to [Gredel 1989] the main tasks of
this facility are the following
• long-term archival of SAR raw data, PR ARE and satellite tracking data, digital terrain
models, and own processing results,
• primary center for generation and distribution of SAR image products,
• generation of high quality altimetry products and precision orbit calculations.
The EARTHNET EItS-1 Central Facility at ESRIN, Frascati, Italy, will be the focal point
for the worldwide user community to access ERS-1 payload data and PAF products.
2 The RADARMAP Project
The RADARMAP project is one of several research projects proposed by german scientists
to process and evaluate ERS-1 sensor data; the following scientific teams of 4 institutions
cooperate to work on this project:
• principal investigator and project manager:
R. Winter, German Aerospace Research Establishment (DLR), Oberpfaffenhofen,
• co-investigators:
W. Markwitz, German Aerospace Research Establishment (DLR), Oberpfaffenhofen,
G. Konecny, Institute for Photogrammetry and Engineering Surveys (IPI), Hannover,
II. Schmidt-Falkenberg, Institute for Applied Geodesy (IfAG), Frankfurt,
H. P. Ilaehr, Institute for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (IPF), Karlsruhe
and their respective teams. It is the central goal of the RADARMAP project to produce,
at a scale of 1 : 200.000, radar and thematic maps of the total area of the Federal Repu
blic of Germany by mosaicking and evaluating ERS-1 SAR imagery. To achive this goal, a
variety of investigations will be performed which include analysis of mosaicking techniques
and radiometric balancing of geocoded SAR image products of the German PAF, analysis
of the usefulness of C-Band radar imagery in combination with optical satellite imagery for
the generation of small scale topographic and thematic maps, testing C-Band SAR imagery
for updating topographic maps of a scale of 1 : 100.000 or smaller, development of texture
measures for the characterization of area objects in radar imagery, regional land use map
ping in SAR imagery of different seasons, large area land use mapping in multitemporal SAR
imagery ([Winter 88]).
3 Radar Image Evaluation
Review of some publications
Radar remote sensing is a. new branch of current technical developments. A review of publi
cations of the last 10 years may suffice to get a synposis of the state of the art. Substantial
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