TY - JOUR
T1 - Potential of the Bi-Static SAR Satellite Companion Mission Harmony for Land-Ice Observations
AU - Kääb, Andreas
AU - Mouginot, Jérémie
AU - Prats-Iraola, Pau
AU - Rignot, Eric
AU - Rabus, Bernhard
AU - Benedikter, Andreas
AU - Rott, Helmut
AU - Nagler, Thomas
AU - Rommen, Björn
AU - Lopez-Dekker, Paco
PY - 2024
Y1 - 2024
N2 - The EarthExplorer 10 mission Harmony by the European Space Agency ESA, scheduled for launch around 2029–2030, consists of two passive C-band synthetic-aperture-radar companion satellites flying in a flexible constellation with one Sentinel-1 radar satellite as an illuminator. Sentinel-1 will serve as transmitter and receiver of radar waves, and the two Harmonys will serve as bistatic receivers without the ability to transmit. During the first and last year of the 5-year mission, the two Harmony satellites will fly in a cross-track interferometric constellation, such as that known from TanDEM-X, about 350 km ahead or behind the assigned Sentinel-1. This constellation will provide 12-day repeat DEMs, among other regions, over most land-ice and permafrost areas. These repeat DEMs will be complemented by synchronous lateral terrain displacements from the well-established offset tracking method. In between the cross-track interferometry phases, one of the Harmony satellites will be moved to the opposite side of the Sentinel-1 to form a symmetric bistatic “stereo” constellation with ±~350 km along-track baseline. In this phase, the mission will provide opportunity for radar interferometry along three lines of sight, or up to six when combining ascending and descending acquisitions, enabling the measurement of three-dimensional surface motion, for instance sub- and emergence components of ice flow, or three-dimensional deformation of permafrost surfaces or slow landslides. Such measurements would, for the first time, be available for large areas and are anticipated to provide a number of novel insights into the dynamics and mass balance of a range of mass movement processes.
AB - The EarthExplorer 10 mission Harmony by the European Space Agency ESA, scheduled for launch around 2029–2030, consists of two passive C-band synthetic-aperture-radar companion satellites flying in a flexible constellation with one Sentinel-1 radar satellite as an illuminator. Sentinel-1 will serve as transmitter and receiver of radar waves, and the two Harmonys will serve as bistatic receivers without the ability to transmit. During the first and last year of the 5-year mission, the two Harmony satellites will fly in a cross-track interferometric constellation, such as that known from TanDEM-X, about 350 km ahead or behind the assigned Sentinel-1. This constellation will provide 12-day repeat DEMs, among other regions, over most land-ice and permafrost areas. These repeat DEMs will be complemented by synchronous lateral terrain displacements from the well-established offset tracking method. In between the cross-track interferometry phases, one of the Harmony satellites will be moved to the opposite side of the Sentinel-1 to form a symmetric bistatic “stereo” constellation with ±~350 km along-track baseline. In this phase, the mission will provide opportunity for radar interferometry along three lines of sight, or up to six when combining ascending and descending acquisitions, enabling the measurement of three-dimensional surface motion, for instance sub- and emergence components of ice flow, or three-dimensional deformation of permafrost surfaces or slow landslides. Such measurements would, for the first time, be available for large areas and are anticipated to provide a number of novel insights into the dynamics and mass balance of a range of mass movement processes.
KW - bi-static
KW - multi-static
KW - satellite constellation
KW - synthetic aperture radar
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85202437372&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/rs16162918
DO - 10.3390/rs16162918
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85202437372
SN - 2072-4292
VL - 16
JO - Remote Sensing
JF - Remote Sensing
IS - 16
M1 - 2918
ER -