| 1. |
- Jaron, Frédéric, et al.
(author)
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Cross-Polarization Gain Calibration of Linearly Polarized VLBI Antennas by Observations of 4C 39.25
- 2024
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In: Radio Science. - 0048-6604 .- 1944-799X. ; 59:4
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Radio telescopes with dual linearly polarized feeds regularly participate in Very Long Baseline Interferometry. One example is the VLBI Global Observing System (VGOS), which is employed for high-precision geodesy and astrometry. In order to achieve the maximum signal-to-noise ratio, the visibilities of all four polarization products are combined to Stokes I before fringe-fitting. Our aim is to improve cross-polarization bandpass calibration, which is an essential processing step in this context. Here we investigate the shapes of these station-specific quantities as a function of frequency and time. We observed the extra-galactic source 4C 39.25 for 6 hours with a VGOS network. We correlated the data with the DiFX software and analyzed the visibilities with PolConvert to determine the complex cross-bandpasses with high accuracy. Their frequency-dependent shape is to first order characterized by a group delay between the two orthogonal polarizations, in the order of several hundred picoseconds. We find that this group delay shows systematic variability in the range of a few picoseconds, but can remain stable within this range for several years, as evident from earlier sessions. On top of the linear phase-frequency relationship there are systematic deviations of several tens of degrees, which in addition are subject to smooth temporal evolution. The antenna cross-bandpasses are variable on time scales of ∼1 hr, which defines the frequency of necessary calibrator scans. The source 4C 39.25 is confirmed as an excellent cross-bandpass calibrator. Dedicated surveys are highly encouraged to search for more calibrators of similar quality.
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| 2. |
- Soja, Maciej, 1985, et al.
(author)
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Mapping Tree Height in Burkina Faso Parklands with TanDEM-X
- 2021
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In: Remote Sensing. - : MDPI AG. - 2072-4292. ; 13:14
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Mapping of tree height is of great importance for management, planning, and research related to agroforestry parklands in Africa. In this paper, we investigate the potential of spotlight-mode data from the interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) satellite system TanDEM-X (TDM) for mapping of tree height in Sapone, Burkina Faso, a test site characterised by a low average canopy cover (similar to 15%) and a mean tree height of 9.0 m. Seven TDM acquisitions from January-April 2018 are used jointly to create high-resolution (similar to 3 m) maps of interferometric phase height and mean canopy elevation, the latter derived using a new, model-based processing approach compensating for some effects of the side-looking geometry of SAR. Compared with phase height, mean canopy elevation provides a more accurate representation of tree height variations, a better tree positioning accuracy, and better tree height estimation performance when assessed using 915 trees inventoried in situ and representing 15 different species/genera. We observe and discuss two bias effects, and we use empirical models to compensate for these effects. The best-performing model using only TDM data provides tree height estimates with a standard error (SE) of 2.8 m (31% of the average height) and a correlation coefficient of 75%. The estimation performance is further improved when TDM height data are combined with in situ measurements; this is a promising result in view of future synergies with other remote sensing techniques or ground measurement-supported monitoring of well-known trees.
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