Testing of the usability of the C-band Electronic Corner Reflector (ECR-C) in Hungary based on Sentinel-1 SAR data

The key infrastructural elements of the geodetic application of the Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) are the integrated benchmarks which are satellite technologies, besides the traditional geodetic technologies, therefore they serve as benchmarks of the Global National Satellite System (GNSS) and InSAR.

Previously, the Satellite Geodetic Observatory (SGO) has already built a network of the passive corner reflectors (SENGA) near the Hungarian GPS Geokinematic Reference Network. This infrastructure is added by an active corner reflector (called transponder) which is the first device according to our knowledge in Hungary. We have been testing the transponder in recent months. The scope of our work is the detection of the intensity of the emitted radar signal by the Sentinel-1 C-band satellite VV polarisation sensor using GAMMA Remote Sensing Software with 6 day repeat cycle availability of satellite images in ascending and descending passes. Hence, we could monitor and compare of the pixel-intensity (expressed in decibel) before and after the installation. The value of the pixel is increased around 15-20 dB and we had chance to set the Radar Cross Section (RCS=31 dBm2) against the results of existing researches. During the testing period the ECR was placed on the rooftop of the SGO, but in the short-term the design of the relocation of the device as InSAR Persistent Scatterer has also been developed.

One of the goals of our research is the incorporation of the transponders into the SENGA network which is needed to be expanded, examination and determination of the conditions of this integration.