TanDEM-X

Thursday, 7 September, 2006

An interesting interview in Geoconnexion this month with the Chairman and MD of Infoterra, the commercial operating arm (from a public-private consortium) of TerraSAR-X/TanDEM-X. With launch scheduled for 2009, TanDEM-X is of interest to me as it takes the technology flown as part of the shuttle SIR-C and SRTM missions and develops them further, deploying them as part of a dual-platform. TanDEM-X will deliver a DEM product that has a claimed vertical accuracy of ~2 m and spatial resolution of 12 m. Whilst this is impressive, as TanDEM-X will be a polar orbiting satellite, the entire landmass of the Earth will be imaged within 3 years (i.e. a global DEM).