2 Field installation
No field components are required with SAR interferometry. Merely satellite data are used.
- Fig 5. corner reflector prototype installed in test site Lagoa do Fogo.
Nevertheless, we installed reflectors during the campaign in Azores, Portugal during April to August 2009. Our reason was to be able to compare results with the ground based radar experiment during the campaign even under the strong temporal decorrelation that we expected in the heavily vegetated test site. For the experiment in the hardly accessible mountain environment we constructed a trihedral corner reflector, a new prototype optimized in size for the TerraSAR-X satellite, see Fig 5. It is made from aluminium and has a weight of ca. 15 kg.
The installation of the corner reflector is not complicated. The preparation step is very important: first, an acquisition geometry should be selected considering the local topography. Then, depending on the orbit and incidence angle the orientation should be calculated. An example of on-site installation steps are showed in following images:
1) select installation location and unpack the corner reflector;
2) assemble side plate with ground plate with correspondent number and anchor the reflector with grab pole;
3) adjust the corner to the correct looking angle with water-level;
4) orientate the corner to the select satellite orbit with compass to the selected geometry. The corner location was measured with Leica GPS antenna.
- Fig 6 installation steps 1)-4).