Synergetic use of L- and C-band SAR data in Earth Sciences – The JAXA-ESA mutual cooperation

Within the “Cooperation for the Use of Synthetic Aperture Radar Satellites in Earth Science and Applications”, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the European Space Agency (ESA) agreed to mutually share C-band data from ESA’s Sentinel-1 mission and L-band data from JAXA’s ALOS-2 PALSAR-2 mission over selected test sites. Applications include wetland monitoring, hurricanes, sea ice, snow water equivalent and surface deformation.

The aim of the collaboration is to develop a better understanding of the benefits of combining L- and C-band data over various areas and for the different thematic applications. The findings of the different European, Japanese and international projects will help to develop future SAR satellite missions, such as JAXA’s ALOS-4, and ESA’s Copernicus mission ROSE-L and Sentinel-1 Next Generation.

This presentation will give an overview of the ongoing ESA-JAXA cooperation and will show highlights and first results of the different test sites and applications.