Polarimetric Calibration for Long Wavelength Spaceborne SAR Based on a Polarimetrically Active Radar Calibrator (opens in new tab)

For long wavelength spaceborne SAR, Faraday rotation (FR), system errors (crosstalk and channel imbalance) and system noise all combine to affect the accuracy of polarimetric measurements. This is of particular concern for the European Space Agency (ESA) P-band SAR BIOMASS mission. Measurements from a polarimetric active radar calibrator (PARC) during the commissioning phase and periodically through the mission play a key role in estimating the system errors for BIOMASS. An algorithm to perfo...