RADAR AND SYNTHETIC APERTURE RADAR

SYSTEM
OVERVIEW
PRINCIPLES OF IMAGING RADAR
RADAR INTERFEROMETRY FOR HEIGHT MAPPING
SIMULTANEOUS ACQUISITION
REPEAT TRACK
DIFFERENTIAL INTERFEROMETRY FOR CHANGE DETECTION
PRINCIPLES OF RADAR
HOW DOES RADAR WORK?
TRANSMITTER
RECEIVER
CIRCULATOR
RADAR PULSE
"TARGET"
RADAR =Radio Detection And Ranging
Since radar pulses propagate at the speed of light, the difference to the target is
proportional to the time it takes between the transmit event and reception of the radar echo
PRINCIPLES OF IMAGING RADAR
THE RADAR EQUATION
In order to improve the signal-to-noise ratio for a fixed radar frequency, one has (among
others) the following options:
Increase the transmitted power. This is usually limited by the power available from
the spacecraft or aircraft.
Increase the antenna gain. This requires larger antennas, severely affecting the
launch mass and volume.
Increase the pulse length. This means poorer resolution.
Decrease bandwidth. This also means poorer resolution.
Fly lower. Increases atmospheric drag, requiring more fuel for orbit maintenance.
Signal modulation is a way to increase the radar pulse length without decreasing the
radar range resolution
All civilian spaceborne SARs, and most civilian airborne SARs use linear FM
chirps as the modulation scheme.
PRINCIPLES OF RADAR IMAGING
SYNTHETIC APERTURE RADAR
Because the radar is moving relative to the target,
the received signal will be shifted in frequency
relative to the transmitted frequency by an amount
Targets ahead of the radar will have positive
Doppler shifts, and those behind the radar have
negative Doppler shifts.
Range Resolution:
Azimuth Resolution
Swath Width:
f
d
=
2v

sin
X
r
=
c
2BWsin
X
a
=
v
2f
DM
=
L
2
S =
h
Wcos
2

f
d
+f
DM
-f
DM
time
TARGET
L
f
v
BOTH RANGE AND AZIMUTH RESOLUTIONS ARE INDEPENDENT OF DISTANCE TO TARGET!
PRINCIPLES OF RADAR IMAGING
POINT TARGET RESPONSE
The radar systemtransmits a series of chirp
pulses:
The target will be in view of the radar
antenna for a limited time period. During this
period, the distance to the target is
Usually, so that
W t ( ) = A t ( )exp i2 f
c
t + Bt
2
2
( ) | |
A t ( ) =
1 for nT 2 < t < nT + 2
0 otherwise



r t ( ) = r
0
2
+ v
2
t
2
= h
2
+ D
2
+ v
2
t
2
vt << r
0
r t ( ) ~ r
0
+ v
2
t
2
2r
0
Point
Target
Radar
vt
r
0
h
D
r t ( )
Geometry
PRINCIPLES OF RADAR IMAGING
RANGE-DOPPLER PROCESSING
The phase of the range compressed signal is
The last approximation on the right is valid when the antenna beamwidth is very narrow,
and is usually a good approximation for most higher frequency airborne SAR systems
The expression above is that of a chirp signal with a bandwidth of
where T is half the time that the target is in the field of view of the antenna
Note that the bandwidth of the azimuth chirp is a function of the range to the target.
The range-Doppler processing algorithm uses this fact to first perform matched filter
range compression, followed by matched filter azimuth compression
( ) =
4r ( )

=
4

r
0
2
+ v
2

2
~
4

r
0
+
2
r
0
v
2

2
' B = 2v
2
T r
0
PRINCIPLES OF RADAR IMAGING
CLASSICAL SAR PROCESSING GEOMETRY
insert sphere
Range Sphere
Doppl er Cone
Vel oci ty
Vector
Assumed Reference
Pl ane
Scatterer i s assumed at the i ntersecti on of Range
Sphere, Doppl er Cone and Reference Pl ane
Ai rcraft
Posi ti on
PRINCIPLES OF IMAGING RADAR
SAR IMAGE PROJECTION
A three-dimensional image is projected
onto a two-dimensional plane, causing
characteristic image distortions:
b appears closer than a in radar image
LAYOVER
d and e are closer together in radar
image
FORESHORTENING
h to i not illuminated by the radar
RADAR SHADOW
a c d f g i
b
e
b
a
c
d
e
g
h
i
f
RADAR
IMAGE PLANE
TYPES OF IMAGING RADARS
Spectral Information
Spectrometers
Multi-frequency
Imaging Polarimeter
Imaging
Polarimetric
Interferometer
Multi-frequency
Imaging Interferometer
Multi-frequency
Imaging Polarimetric
Interferometer
Transverse electromagnetic waves are characterized mathematically as 2-dimensional
complex vectors. When a scatterer is illuminated by an electromagnetic wave, electrical
currents are generated inside the scatterer. These currents give rise to the scattered
waves that are reradiated.
Mathematically, the scatterer can be characterized by a 2x2 complex scattering matrix
that describes how the scatterer transforms the incident vector into the scattered vector.
The elements of the scattering matrix are functions of frequency and the scattering and
illuminating geometries.
SAR POLARIMETRY
SCATTERER AS POLARIZATION TRANSFORMER
INCIDENT WAVE
SCATTERER
SCATTERED WAVES
POLARIMETER IMPLEMENTATION
TIMING
Transmission:
Horizontal
Vertical
Reception:
Horizontal
Vertical
HH HH HH
HV HV
VH VV VH VV VH
Transmitter
Receiver
Receiver
BLOCK DIAGRAM
Horizontal
Vertical
POLARIZATION SIGNATURE
The polarization signature (also known as the polarization response) is a convenient
graphical way to display the received power as a function of polarization.
Usually displayed assuming identical transmit and receive polarizations (co-polarized)
or orthogonal transmit and receive polarizations (cross-polarized).
RADAR INTERFEROMETRY
HOW IS IT DONE?
B
B
SIMULTANEOUS BASELINE
Two radars acquire data at
the same time
REPEAT TRACK
Two radars acquire data from different
vantage points at different times
RADAR INTERFEROMETRY
COMPARISON OF TECHNIQUES
IMPLEMENTATION ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES
Simul taneous Basel i ne Known baseline Difficult to get adequate
baseline in space
No temporal decorrelation High data rate from two
radars
Typically better performance Typically higher cost
Repeat Track Lower data rate from one
radar
Temporal decorrelation
Lower cost Baseline not well known and
may be changing
Depending on orbit, any
baseline can be realized
INTERFEROMETRIC SAR PROCESSING GEOMETRY
insert sphere
Range Sphere
Doppl er Cone
Vel oci ty
Vector
Phase Cone
Ai rcraft
Posi ti on
Basel i ne
Vector
Scatterer i s at i ntersecti on of Range
Sphere, Doppl er Cone and Phase
Cone
DIFFERENTIAL INTERFEROMETRY
HOW DOES IT WORK?
THREE-PASS REPEAT TRACK:
Two different baselines:
Incidence angle the same
Absolute range the same
Useparallel ray approximation to show that
if nothing changed,
(B
1
,
1
); (B
2
,
2
)
A
2
A
1
B
2
sin(
2
)
B
1
sin(
1
)
|
\

|
.
|
= 0
B2
B1
a1
a2
DIFFERENTIAL INTERFEROMETRY
ERROR SOURCES
Uncompensated differential motion
Atmospheric effects
Temporal decorrelation
Layover
EMERGING SAR TECHNIQUES
POLARIMETRIC INTERFEROMETRY
Polarimetric interferometry is implemented by measuring the full scattering matrix at
each end of the interferometric baseline
Currently there are no single baseline systems that can acquire this type of data
During the last three days of the second SIR-C/X-SAR mission the system was operated
in the repeat-pass interferometric mode, and some fully polarimetric interferometric data
were acquired
Using the full scattering matrix one can now solve for the optimum polarization to
maximize the interferometric coherence
This problem was first analyzed and reported by Cloude and Papathanassiou
Using interferograms acquired with different polarization combinations, one can also for
vector differential interferograms
These vector differential interferograms have been shown to measure large elevation
differences in forested areas, and cm-level elevation differences in agricultural fields
EMERGING SAR TECHNIQUES
TOPOGRAPHY FROM POLARIMETRY
By measuring the shift in the maximum of the polarization signature, the tilt of the
surface in the azimuth direction can be estimated.
In vegetated areas, P-Band data are used since a tilted surface will show a similar
behavior if the trunk-ground interaction term is relatively strong
The accuracy with which one can measure the surface tilt is determined by the signal to
noise ratio
Once the surface tilts (surface slopes) are known, the slopes are integrated in the
azimuth direction to find the topography as a series of azimuth profiles
Ground control points are needed to find the correct absolute height, and to tie different
azimuth profiles together
By using data acquired in a crossing flight pattern, the topography can be derived
requiring only a single ground control point
While the accuracy of this technique is not as good as that of interferometry, crude
digital elevation maps can be produced.