Absolute Radiometric Calibration of C-Band Transponders with Proven Plausibility

The progressive development of upcoming satellite missions using synthetic aperture radar (SAR) lead to novel challenges also for the reference targets. In order to provide a reference target for an accurate absolute radiometric calibration the knowledge of the backscattering characteristics is essential. Whereas usually one single measurement is used for the estimation of the radar cross section (RCS), this paper presents two conducted, independent methods to derive the RCS of three C-band transponder leading to cross-validated results based on a compatibility analysis.