On 11 November 2007, a storm broke the Russian tanker Volgoneft-139 apart. This TerraSAR-X image shows the oil slick in the Kerch Strait between the Ukraine and Russia. The image covers an area of approximately 30 by 100 kilometres in both polarisations (VV and HH).
Due to its variety of operating modes, TerraSAR-X data can be used both for established applications of high-resolution data and also for large-scale monitoring tasks.
Land use and regional/urban planning
So far, radar data have been effectively applied to forest monitoring, the investigation of the global carbon cycle and compliance verification for international climate conventions. The spatial resolution of the TerraSAR-X radar also allows the derivation of meaningful texture parameters and land-use classification with respect to discrimination between crops as well as mapping of humid areas and coastal zones. The evaluation of cross-polarised and polarimetric X-band SAR yields insight for the disciplines of land-use analysis, environmental monitoring, traffic infrastructure information and traffic surveillance.
Disaster management
Disaster management comprises risk analysis, constant monitoring of threatened areas, support of rescue teams and damage assessment. For these applications, the substantial advantage of radar sensors is their ability to operate in all weather conditions and the absence of daylight. Even on the global level, most regions of interest can be mapped by TerraSAR-X within 2.5 days of the event of interest. By means of repeat-pass interferometry, large-scale movements of and changes to the surface of the Earth can be detected and monitored with an accuracy of centimetres. These changes may be caused by earthquakes, volcanic activity, ground subsidence or landslides. TerraSAR-X data are essential for DLR's Center for satellite based disaster monitoring (ZKI).
Snow and glaciers
Apart from its relevance for the understanding of climate change impacts, up-to-date information on snow and ice coverage is important for agriculture, the prediction of flooding and the generation of hydroelectric power. In this domain, the evaluation of cross-polarised and polarimetric data provides new insight. These data also build a solid base for the estimation of the melt-water equivalent and the mapping of ablation and accumulation zones on glaciers.
Sea and sea ice
A high image repetition rate is necessary for the monitoring of sea ice and icebergs. With its beam steering capability, TerraSAR-X is able to fulfil this requirement. In addition, the X-band is optimally suited to differentiating between various types of ice. Further improvements are achieved through the extraction of textural parameters from high resolution TerraSAR-X data. VV-polarised X-band data allow the detection of oil on sea water because of the resulting reduction of surface roughness, which causes increased polarimetric anisotropy or decreased circular coherence of the backscattered signal.
