Processing Of Synthetic Aperture Radar Sar Images

Synthetic aperture radar provides broad-area imaging at high resolutions, which is used in applications such as environmental monitoring, earth-resource mapping, and military systems. This book presents the tools required for the digital processing of synthetic aperture radar images. They are of three types: (a) the elements of physics, (b) mathematical models and (c) image processing methods adapted to particular applications.

Modern airborne and spaceborne imaging radars, known as synthetic aperture radars (SARs), are capable of producing high-quality pictures of the earth's surface while avoiding some of the shortcomings of certain other forms of remote imaging systems. Primarily, radar overcomes the nighttime limitations of optical cameras, and the cloud- cover limitations of both optical and infrared imagers. In addition, because imaging radars use a form of coherent illumination, they can be used in certain special modes such as interferometry, to produce some unique derivative image products that incoherent systems cannot. One such product is a highly accurate digital terrain elevation map (DTEM). The most recent (ca. 1980) version of imaging radar, known as spotlight-mode SAR, can produce imagery with spatial resolution that begins to approach that of remote optical imagers. For all of these reasons, synthetic aperture radar imaging is rapidly becoming a key technology in the world of modern remote sensing. Much of the basic `workings' of synthetic aperture radars is rooted in the concepts of signal processing. Starting with that premise, this book explores in depth the fundamental principles upon which the spotlight mode of SAR imaging is constructed, using almost exclusively the language, concepts, and major building blocks of signal processing. Spotlight-Mode Synthetic Aperture Radar: A Signal Processing Approach is intended for a variety of audiences. Engineers and scientists working in the field of remote sensing but who do not have experience with SAR imaging will find an easy entrance into what can seem at times a very complicated subject. Experienced radar engineers will find that the book describes several modern areas of SAR processing that they might not have explored previously, e.g. interferometric SAR for change detection and terrain elevation mapping, or modern non-parametric approaches to SAR autofocus. Senior undergraduates (primarily in electrical engineering) who have had courses in digital signal and image processing, but who have had no exposure to SAR could find the book useful in a one-semester course as a reference.

The use of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) represents a new era in remote sensing technology. A complete handbook for anyone who must design an SAR system capable of reliably producing high quality image data products, free from image artifacts and calibrated in terms of the target backscatter coefficient. Combines fundamentals underlying the SAR imaging process and the practical system engineering required to produce quality images from a real SAR system. Beginning with a broad overview of SAR technology, it goes on to examine SAR system capabilities and components and detail the techniques required for design and development of the SAR ground data system with emphasis on the correlation processing. Intended for SAR system engineers and researchers, it is generously illustrated for maximum clarity.

Synthetic Aperture Radar Processing simply and methodically presents principles and techniques of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) image generation by analyzing its system transfer function. The text considers the full array of operation modes from strip to scan, emphasizes processing techniques, enabling the design of operational SAR codes. A simple example then follows. This book will be invaluable to all SAR scientists and engineers working in the field. It may be used as the basis for a course on SAR image generation or as a reference book on remote sensing. It contains a wide spectrum of information presented with clarity and rigor.

Synthetic Aperture Radar Processing simply and methodically presents principles and techniques of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) image generation by analyzing its system transfer function. The text considers the full array of operation modes from strip to scan, emphasizes processing techniques, enabling the design of operational SAR codes. A simple example then follows. This book will be invaluable to all SAR scientists and engineers working in the field. It may be used as the basis for a course on SAR image generation or as a reference book on remote sensing. It contains a wide spectrum of information presented with clarity and rigor.

This practical reference shows SAR system designers and remote sensing specialists how to produce higher quality SAR images using data-driven algorithms, and apply powerful new techniques to measure and analyze SAR image content.