IEEE Awards Booklet - 2012 - 25

I E E E

P R I Z E

PA P E R

2012 IEEE
W.R.G. Baker Award
Sponsored by the IEEE Circuits and Systems, Communications, Control Systems,
Information Theory, Power & Energy, Signal Processing, and Vehicular Technology Societies

Gerhard Krieger, Alberto Moreira, Hauke Fiedler, Irena Hajnsek,
Marian Werner, Marwan Younis, and Manfred Zink
For their paper titled "TanDEM-X: A Satellite Formation for High-Resolution SAR Interferometry," IEEE Transactions on
Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Vol. 45, Issue 11, Part 1, November 2007, pp. 3317-3341
"TanDEM-X: A Satellite Formation for High-Resolution SAR
Interferometry" describes the conceptual design and technology behind a satellite system for mapping the Earth's topography
with high accuracy. Published in the November 2007 issue of the
IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing (vol. 45,
no. 11, Part 1, pp. 3317-3341), the paper has highly impacted
synthetic aperture radar (SAR) theory and technology with implications for many areas of geoscience. The TanDEM-X (which
stands for TerraSAR-X add-on for Digital Elevation Measurement)
mission was proposed by the German Aerospace Center (DLR)
to provide highly accurate digital elevation measurements of
Earth. By placing two satellites in a close-orbit configuration and
using innovative radar techniques, TanDEM-X has achieved unprecedented accuracy. The TanDEM-X satellite (a practical twin
of the previously launched TerraSAR-X satellite) was launched in
June 2010 and was placed in close formation with TerraSAR-X in
October 2010. In December 2010, the two satellites began
operating in bistatic mode to provide absolute vertical and horizontal accuracy better than 10 meters. The relative vertical
accuracy is better than 2 meters. Published before mission
launch, the paper provides an overview of the mission and
examples of new imaging modes and potential applications.
The authors discuss innovations including orbit selection,
multiple data acquisition modes, and a synchronization system
for bistatic operation based on relative phase referencing using
dedicated horn antennas. The authors also detail the interferometric performance analysis of bistatic SAR data acquisition
obtained from multiple baselines.

Dr. Hauke Fiedler is currently the head of the Space Situational
Awareness Team with the German Aerospace Center's GSOC,
Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany.
Dr. Irena Hajnsek is an IEEE Senior Member and currently
Professor at the Institute of Environmental Engineering of the
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, Switzerland and
head of the Polarimetric SAR Interferometry Group at the
Microwaves and Radar Institute of the German Aerospace
Center.
Mr. Marian Werner is currently a scientist with the German
Aerospace Center's Microwaves and Radar Institute.
An IEEE Senior Member, Dr. Marwan Younis is currently a
research scientist with the German Aerospace Center's
Microwaves and Radar Institute.
Dr. Manfred Zink is currently head of the Satellite SAR Systems
Department of the German Aerospace Center's Microwaves
and Radar Institute.

Dr. Gerhard Krieger is an IEEE Senior Member and currently
head of the Radar Concepts Department with the German
Aerospace Center's Microwaves and Radar Institute,
Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany.
Dr. Alberto Moreira is an IEEE Fellow and currently the Director
of the German Aerospace Center's Microwaves and Radar
Institute as well as Full Professor with the Karlsruhe Institute of
Technology, Germany, in the field of microwave remote sensing.
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