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Radiometric calibration stability assessment of Sentinel-1B using point targets at Surat Basin, Australia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2022

Sowkhya Badatala Open the ORCID record for Sowkhya Badatala [Opens in a new window] ,
Shweta Sharma ,
Saurabh Tripathi ,
Parul R. Patel  and
Aloke K. Mathur
Sowkhya Badatala*
Affiliation:
Institute of Technology, Nirma University, Ahmedabad 382481, Gujarat, India
Shweta Sharma
Affiliation:
Calibration and Validation Division, Space Applications Centre-ISRO, Ahmedabad 380015, Gujarat, India
Saurabh Tripathi
Affiliation:
Calibration and Validation Division, Space Applications Centre-ISRO, Ahmedabad 380015, Gujarat, India
Parul R. Patel
Affiliation:
Institute of Technology, Nirma University, Ahmedabad 382481, Gujarat, India
Aloke K. Mathur
Affiliation:
Calibration and Validation Division, Space Applications Centre-ISRO, Ahmedabad 380015, Gujarat, India
*
Author for correspondence: Sowkhya Badatala, E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

The launch of the Sentinel-1B satellite in April 2016 completed the two-satellite synthetic aperture radar (SAR) constellation of the European Copernicus Sentinel-1 mission. The European Space Agency executed the calibration of this sensor during the commissioning phase and an independent calibration by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in 2016. The calibration parameters must be monitored to assess the stability of the instrument. This study reports the temporal stability assessment of radiometric calibration and image quality parameters of Sentinel-1B SAR data using the corner reflector (CR) array, Surat Basin, Australia. Impulse response functions generated from the CRs in the satellite images were used to derive the image quality parameters. The average radar cross-section difference between estimated and theoretical values (38.40 dB m2) was 0.53 dB m2 for 1.5 m CRs, which is accordant with the absolute radiometric accuracy specified for the Sentinel-1 SAR system. Derived image quality parameters viz. the mean peak-to-side lobe ratio, mean integrated side lobe ratio, and spatial resolutions in the range and azimuth directions were found to be accordant with the specified value for the Sentinel-1 SAR system. The results indicate the excellent quality of the Sentinel-1B data.

Keywords

Sentinel-1Bimage quality parametersimpulse response functionsspatial resolutionsISLRPSLR
Type
Radar
Information
International Journal of Microwave and Wireless Technologies , Volume 14 , Issue 10 , December 2022 , pp. 1262 - 1269
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press in association with the European Microwave Association

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