A Unified Formulation of Synthetic-Aperture Radar Theory,
Abstract
A theory of synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) is formulated for the case where the radar antenna is pointed along or close to the normal to the track of the satellite or aircraft carrying the radar. All the common signal defects are presented and incorporated into a unified mathematical description, of the recorded input signal. From this description, the two-dimensional Fourier transform and the output image function are derived. Signal defects arising from range curvature, rotation of the earth, earth curvature, and antenna pointing error are included in the formulation. A method of correcting for the effects of range curvature by use of a frequency-plane filter is recommended. The direct effects of cross-track motion caused by the earth's rotation are eliminated by proper choice of the coordinate system. Simple methods of handling other aberrations are presented. Further topics covered are ambiguities, the spread of range and latitude over which a single reference function may be used, incoherent integration for reduction of radar speckle, object motion, and antenna motion errors. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 01, 1979
- Accession Number
- ADA081643
Entities
People
- E. B. Felstead
Organizations
- Communications Research Centre Canada