Technical Note on Quality Assessment for SAOCOM 1A/B

The Argentinean Satélite Argentino de Observación COn Microondas (SAOCOM) mission comprises of two satellites phased at 180° that carry an L-band full polarimetric SAR instrument. The satellites are right and left looking, with 400 km ground range access. Together, they will acquire 450 minutes of satellite data per day. The first of two satellites, SAOCOM 1A, was launched on 7 October 2018 into a Sun-synchronous orbit polar orbit, with a 16 day repeat cycle and 6AM local time ascending node. The same orbit was used for the second satellite, SAOCOM 1B, which was successfully launched on 30 August 2020. The satellites are operated in Stripmap (10 x 10 m resolution) and, as primary option, in TopSAR (Terrain Observation with Progressive Scans) mode (resolution from 30 to 100 m according to the mode). The TopSAR technique is operationally used in Sentinel-1 but until now has never been used at L-band. Stripmap mode can be used for SAR interferometry with 8 days temporal baseline (constellation) or 16 days temporal baseline (single satellite). SAOCOM InSAR quality will be evaluated in the framework of EDAP+ project. The TN provides the results of the Capella products assessemnt in terms of products format, point target data parameters, Rain Forest radiometric profiles and Noise Equivalent Sigma Zero (NESZ) level assessment.