Microwaves and Radar Institute

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Microwaves and Radar Institute

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Alberto Moreira
Director of the Institute, Wessling

Microwaves and Radar Institute

With its know-how and expertise in passive and active microwave remote sensing, the Microwaves and Radar Institute contributes to the development and advancement of ground-based, airborne and spaceborne sensors. The focus of its research work is on the conception and development of new synthetic aperture radar (SAR) techniques and systems, as well as sensor-specific applications.

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News

Satellites as helpers in the fight against climate change

03 November 2021
IN GERMAN: Vom 31. Oktober bis zum 12. November 2021 findet im schottischen Glasgow die 26. UN-Klimakonferenz (COP, Conference of the Parties) unter dem Vorsitz Großbritanniens statt. Vertreter von 197 Vertragsstaaten beraten dort über geeignete Maßnahmen, um die Ziele der UN-Klimarahmenkonvention (UNFCCC) zu erreichen und das Pariser Klimaabkommen umzusetzen. "Die Raumfahrt spielt für die Umsetzung dieser Ziele eine wichtige Rolle, weil sie mithilfe von Erdbeobachtungssatelliten kontinuierlich und über einen langen Zeitraum den Zustand und die Veränderungen unseres Heimatplaneten und damit auch die Ursachen und Folgen des Klimawandels auf einzigartige Weise dokumentiert", erklärt Dr. Walther Pelzer, Mitglied des DLR-Vorstands und Leiter der Deutschen Raumfahrtagentur im DLR. "Im Verbund mit unseren europäischen und internationalen Partnern wollen wir durch unsere Aktivitäten dazu beitragen, dass auf politischer und gesellschaftlicher Ebene dem Klimawandel effektiver entgegengewirkt werden kann."

DLR Magazin - New eyes for looking upwards

26 October 2021
IN GERMAN: Der Nachthimmel gehört längst nicht nur den Sternen: Mehr und mehr Satelliten umkreisen permanent die Erde. Ein besonders prominentes Beispiel ist die Starlink-Flotteder Firma SpaceX, die im letzten Jahr als leuchtende Perlenkette für Aufmerksamkeit sorgte. Doch in welchem physischen Zustand sich die einzelnen Satelliten befinden, ist oft nicht bekannt. Die Zustandsdaten der künstlichen Erdtrabanten sagen nichts darüber aus, ob ein Stück vom Solarpanel abgebrochen ist oder ein Brocken Weltraumschrott ein Loch in den Satellitenbus geschlagen hat. Häufig erfahren die Betreiberfirmen erst, dass der Satellit defekt ist, wenn Subsysteme ausfallen. Um den Zustand der Weltraumobjekte dauerhaft dokumentieren zu können und Ausfälle früh festzustellen, entwickeln DLR-Forscherinnen und -Forscher ein neues Konzept, das aus vielen Sender- und Empfängereinheiten aufgebaut ist und solche Himmelskörper dauerhaft mit höchster Qualität beobachten soll. DLR Magazin 168

Quantum Radar - Quantum technology to further enhance radar performance

03 September 2021
Radar (Radio Detection and Ranging) describes non-contact close-range and remote sensing with microwaves and has become indispensable in many practical applications. Research is currently being conducted into the extent to which fundamental limitations of conventional radar systems can be overcome with the aid of modern quantum technology.

RADIAN interprets satellite images soon with KI

26 July 2021
IN GERMAN: The analysis of radar images is a demanding task: Image effects such as geometric distortions or image noise make interpretation difficult. To make this as intuitive as possible, scientists at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) have established the image analysis tool RADIAN (RAdar IMage ANalysis). RADIAN has been in use for more than ten years and is constantly being further developed. Now the focus is on automated information retrieval. To this end, an artificial intelligence (AI) is to learn to recognize changes in objects on the basis of existing data records. Such objects include aircraft, ships, vehicles, containers and buildings.

DLR Weekly: An interferometric radar for Venus – DLR participates in NASA's VERITAS mission

14 June 2021
The DLR centers Oberpfaffenhofen near Munich and Berlin are excited to be a part of the VERITAS team to explore the surface and interior of Venus. Our engineering and science teams are in close collaboration with NASA JPL for the past decade to refine the VERITAS design developing the VEM (Venus Emissivity Mapper) prototype and VISAR (Veritas Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar) instrument and software design together. The radar end-to-end simulator, instrument performance models and processing algorithms for the innovative VISAR are being developed by the DLR Microwaves and Radar Institute (HR) and the DLR Remote Sensing Technology Institute (IMF).

Press Release: "Research Project GeoWAM: New geodata for water management by airborne radar missions

04 May 2021
The GeoWAM research project, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI), is developing new approaches to the acquisition of geodata for the water management of coastal areas that are influenced by tides. The first geodata from several radar flights within GeoWAM have now been processed. They will be presented during an online workshop on June 17, 2021.
More: GeoWAM, Workshop, Press Release, Web News

DLR develops unmanned stratocruiser

21 April 2021
IN GERMAN: Erdbeobachtung und globale Kommunikation – zwei Begriffe, die einen sofort an Satelliten denken lassen. Bau und Positionierung sind teuer und am Ende kann Weltraumschrott zurückbleiben. Aber auch Flugzeuge oder Hubschrauber sind für diese Aufgabe nicht ideal. Ihr Einsatz ist zeitlich und örtlich begrenzt und stark wetterabhängig. Ein Team des Deutschen Zentrums für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR) erforscht und entwickelt ein unbemanntes und solarbetriebenes Stratosphärenflugzeug für zukünftige wissenschaftliche Experimente, das die Vorzüge von Raumfahrt und Luftfahrt vereint.

Using principles from painting – creating 3D-effect satellite images in true colour

29 March 2021
How can an impression of three-dimensionality be created using a two-dimensional medium? In art, this question arose centuries ago. Certain painting techniques have since evolved to simulate effects of light and shadow, creating a 3D effect for the viewer. Such effects are referred to as trompe-l'œil – they 'deceive the eye'.

Harmony: A mission for Earth's future

01 March 2021
'Harmony', its focus is Earth observation, space, global change, is intended to answer important scientific questions about changes to oceans, ice and land. ESA has selected 'Harmony' as a future mission in the field of Earth observation. Understanding the changes happening to Earth and its delicate balance is of ever increasing importance. "With the Harmony mission, we have the opportunity to gain new insights into processes that take place within the Earth system. This represents a considerable scientific and technical challenge," says Alberto Moreira, Director of the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) Microwaves and Radar Institute.

Global Change: The Earth System

18. January 2021
‘Global change’ is not a recently invented term – it has been used since the 1980s to describe changes in the Earth system driven or triggered by human activities. In contrast to climate change, which only deals with one specific issue, global change takes into account a larger range of processes. For many years, DLR has been researching global change with a wide variety of missions. It develops archiving and processing technologies, devises algorithms for extracting relevant parameters from EO data and analyses the results.

Season´s Greetings and wishes from TanDEM-X!

22. Dezember 2020
Our Christmas star (Download [11 MB]) this year comes from Italy and was observed by the TanDEM-X satellite mission. The municipality of Palmanova, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is located in the Veneto region. It was laid out at the end of the 16th century as a fortified city of the Republic of Venice, and its star-shaped layout followed the concept of Renaissance city planners for an ideal city. In this TanDEM-X image, the surface elevation is shown in colors (dark blue is 12 m and red is 38 m above mean sea level), while the brightness is proportional to the radar backscatter intensity. TanDEM-X was launched in 2010 and has been operating since then together with its twin TerraSAR-X as a bistatic SAR interferometer. This year we are commenmorating 10 years of TanDEM-X operations in close formation flight. The global digital elevation model (DEM) of TanDEM-X has been available since 2016 for commercial and scientific applications. A new edition of this global dataset, denoted as Change DEM, will be available soon.

Look out for further news on TanDEM-X on www.dlr.de/HR.

The Microwaves and Radar Institute wishes you Merry Christmas 2020 and a Happy New Year 2021!

News Archive

Departments of the Institute


TanDEM-X Latest News


TanDEM-X DEM Gallery

TanDEM-X Images [6 MB]

TanDEM-X Forest Map


TerraSAR-X Info

TerraSAR-X Picture Gallery


Tandem-L Latest News


Compact Test Range

Airborne SAR (F-SAR)

Mechanical Lab


E-SAR and F-SAR Picture Gallery


EUSAR 2022


HR Institute Seminar

Scientific Colloquium DLR Oberpfaffenhofen

Brochures of the Institute

Status Report 2011 – 2018 (52.3 MB)

Status Report 2006 – 2011 (31.83 MB)

Status Report 2000 - 2005 (11.12 MB)

Research and Projects (10 MB)

HR-Brochure (1.94 MB)

TerraSAR-X Brochure (9.06 MB)

TanDEM-X Brochure (8.05 MB)

Tandem-L Brochure (3.28 MB)

Helmholtz Alliance "Remote Sensing and Earth System Dynamics" (5.85 MB)

TanDEM-X - Die Erde in 3D (1.63 MB)


HR Institute on YouTube

Institute's History: A Retrospective 1908 - 2008 (PDF 34.39 MB)

Microwaves and Radar Institute

Satellites as helpers in the fight against climate change

DLR Magazin - New eyes for looking upwards

Quantum Radar - Quantum technology to further enhance radar performance

RADIAN interprets satellite images soon with KI

DLR Weekly: An interferometric radar for Venus – DLR participates in NASA's VERITAS mission

Press Release: "Research Project GeoWAM: New geodata for water management by airborne radar missions

DLR develops unmanned stratocruiser

Using principles from painting – creating 3D-effect satellite images in true colour

Harmony: A mission for Earth's future

Global Change: The Earth System

Season´s Greetings and wishes from TanDEM-X!

SAR Technology

Radar Concepts

Satellite SAR Systems

Reconnaissance and Security