The Remote Sensing Technology Institute (IMF) is an institute of the German Aerospace Center DLR. It is located in Oberpfaffenhofen (near Munich), Berlin-Adlershof, Neustrelitz (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern) as well as an office in Bremen. IMF and the German Remote Sensing Data Center (DFD) together comprise the Earth Observation Center EOC – a center of competence for earth observation in Germany.

What to expect

Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery from planetary bodies can provide deep insights into surface processes, for example the mapping of volcanic flow features on Venus by the Magellan mission. SAR instruments on next-generation interplanetary spacecraft like the NASA-led VERITAS mission will enable imagery and topographic mapping with significantly larger resolutions than ever before, but face challenges concerning the geolocation of any given pixel. This is due to the lower orbital position accuracy, because of the lack of precisely-calibrated ground reference targets, or the availability of a GNSS-like system. Therefore, such missions will exploit their own SAR imagery data to improve the orbital position accuracy by incorporating repeat observations of the same ground feature into the orbit determination routines. The algorithms required for this approach have been shown to work for Earth, and in principle on other terrestrial bodies, but still need to be fully implemented and validated in order to become operational.
The Remote Sensing Technology Institute (IMF) within the German Aerospace Center (DLR) is dedicated to develop methods, algorithms, and operational processors that translate remote sensing data to usable information with societal benefits. The SAR Signal Processing department located near Munich, Germany, is looking to implement a SAR-based feature matching and 3D localization algorithm, and therefore searching for students from a wide background that are interested in a master’s thesis and/or an internship on this interdisciplinary topic.

Your tasks

• Literature research on SAR-derived feature matching algorithms and radargrammetric localization of radar targets (approx. half a month)
• Getting acquainted with the radargrammetric localization tools already available in the department (approx. half a month)
• Testing available feature matching algorithms on SAR datasets from different planets, viewing geometries, and resolutions (approx. half a month)
• Implementing a localization toolchain from feature matching to 3D absolute position of said features (approx.    3-4 months)
• Validating this toolchain using Earth-based ground references (approx. half a month)
• Documenting the progress throughout the project and preparing a publication for a scientific journal
• Optionally, to present your work at appropriate international scientific conferences

Your profile

• Includes a completed Bachelor’s degree in remote sensing, data science, aerospace engineering, signal processing, geography, or adjacent fields
• Should include the desire to work with SAR datasets in applications relevant to Earth and other planets
• Should include experience in estimation theory (least-squares regression), or the desire to acquire the required knowledge as part of the internship/thesis
• Should include experience in Python programming, or the desire to acquire the required knowledge as part of the internship/thesis

 We look forward to getting to know you!

If you have any questions about this position (Vacancy-ID 3726) please contact:

Michael Eineder 
Tel.: +49 8153 28 1396