On the Processing of Very High Resolution Spaceborne SAR Data

• Published in: IEEE transactions on geoscience and remote sensing Vol. 52; no. 10; pp. 6003 - 6016
• Main Authors: Prats-Iraola, Pau, Scheiber, Rolf, Rodriguez-Cassola, Marc, Mittermayer, Josef, Wollstadt, Steffen, De Zan, Francesco, Brautigam, Benjamin, Schwerdt, Marco, Reigber, Andreas, Moreira, Alberto
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.10.2014; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Antenna arrays; Antennas; Azimuth; Bandwidth; Chirp signals; Deterioration; Geometry; Orbits; SAR processing; Satellites; Simulation; spotlight SAR; stop-and-go approximation; Synthetic aperture radar; synthetic aperture radar (SAR); Terrestrial atmosphere; Troposphere; stop-and-go approximation; spotlight SAR; SAR processing; synthetic aperture radar (SAR); troposphere
• ISSN: 0196-2892; 1558-0644
• DOI: 10.1109/TGRS.2013.2294353

This paper addresses several important aspects that need to be considered for the processing of spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data with resolutions in the decimeter range. In particular, it will be shown how the motion of the satellite during the transmission/reception of the chirp signal and the effect of the troposphere deteriorate the impulse response function if not properly considered. Further aspects that have been investigated include the curved orbit, the array pattern for electronically steered antennas, and several considerations within the processing itself. For each aspect, a solution is proposed, and the complete focusing methodology is expounded and validated using simulated point targets and staring spotlight data acquired by TerraSAR-X with 16-cm azimuth resolution and 300-MHz range bandwidth.