Volume 14 Issue 2
Apr.  2025
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SHI Lei, SUN Weidong, YANG Le, et al. Evaluation of radiometric and polarimetric errors in the LT-1A satellite data based on tropical forests in the amazon[J]. Journal of Radars, 2025, 14(2): 405–423. doi: 10.12000/JR24102
Citation: SHI Lei, SUN Weidong, YANG Le, et al. Evaluation of radiometric and polarimetric errors in the LT-1A satellite data based on tropical forests in the amazon[J]. Journal of Radars, 2025, 14(2): 405–423. doi: 10.12000/JR24102
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Evaluation of Radiometric and Polarimetric Errors in the LT-1A Satellite Data Based on Tropical Forests in the Amazon

DOI: 10.12000/JR24102 CSTR: 32380.14.JR24102
  • 1.

    State Key Laboratory of Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing Information Engineering, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China

  • 2.

    The school of Geo-Science and Technology, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China

  • 3.

    School of Remote Sensing Information Engineering, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China

  • 4.

    Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100094, China

Funds:  The National Natural Science Foundation of China (U22A2010, 42071295, 61971318, 42171442, U2033216), The Shenzhen Fundamental Research Program (JCYJ20200109150833977), The Key Laboratory of Land Satellite Remote Sensing Application of the Ministry of Natural Resources of the People Republic of China (KLSMNR-202110), The National Key Research and Development Program of China (2022YFB3903605), The Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, and a Grant from the State Key Laboratory of Resources and Environmental Information System
More Information
  • Corresponding author: SUN Weidong, widensun2012@whu.edu.cn
  • Received Date: 2024-05-28
  • Rev Recd Date: 2024-08-11
    • Available Online: 2024-08-16
  • Publish Date: 2024-09-19
    Abstract
  • As a representative of China’s new generation of space-borne long-wavelength Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), the LuTan-1A (LT-1A) satellite was launched into a solar synchronous orbit in January 2022. The SAR onboard the LT-1A satellite operates in the L band and exhibits various earth observation capabilities, including single-polarization, linear dual-polarization, compressed dual-polarization, and quad-polarization observation capabilities. Existing research has mainly focused on LT-1A interferometric data acquisition capabilities and the accuracy evaluation of digital elevation models and displacement measurements. Research on the radiometric and polarimetric accuracy of the LT-1A satellite is limited. This article uses tropical rainforest vegetation as a reference to evaluate and analyze the radiometric error and polarimetricstability of the LT-1A satellite in the full polarization observation mode through a self-calibration method that does not rely on artificial calibrators. The experiment demonstrates that the LT-1A satellite has good radiometric stability and polarimetric accuracy, exceeding the recommended specifications of the International Organization for Earth Observations (Committee on Earth Observation Satellites, CEOS). Fluctuations in the Normalized Radar Cross-Section (NRCS) error within 1,000 km of continuous observation are less than 1 dB (3σ), and there are no significant changes in system radiometric errors of less than 0.5 dB (3σ) when observation is resumed within five days. In the full polarization observation mode, the system crosstalk is less than −35 dB, reaching as low as −45 dB. Further, the cross-polarization channel imbalance is better than 0.2 dB and 2°, whilethe co-polarization channel imbalance is better than 0.5 dB and 10°. The equivalent thermal noise ranges from −42～−22 dB, and the average equivalent thermal noise of the system is better than −25 dB. The level of thermal noise may increase to some extent with increasing continuous observation duration. Additionally, this study found that the ionosphere significantly affects the quality of the LT-1A satellite polarization data, with a Faraday rotation angle of approximately 5°, causing a crosstalk of nearly −20 dB. In middle- and low-latitude regions, the Faraday rotation angle commonly ranges from 3° to 20°. The Faraday rotation angle can cause polarimetric distortion errors between channels ranging from −21.16～−8.78 dB. The interference from the atmospheric observation environment is considerably greater than the influence of about −40 dB system crosstalk errors. This research carefully assesses the radiomatric and polarimetric quality of the LT-1A satellite data considering dense vegetation in the Amazon rainforest and provides valuable information to industrial users. Thus, this research holds significant scientific importanceand reference value.

     

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