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.

Radar, like most well developed areas, has its own vocabulary. Words like Doppler frequency, pulse compression, mismatched filter, carrier frequency, in-phase, and quadrature have specific meaning to the radar engineer. In fact, the word radar is actually an acronym for RAdio Detection And Rang ing. Even though these words are well defined, they can act as road blocks which keep people without a radar background from utilizing the large amount of data, literature, and expertise within the radar community. This is unfortunate because the use of digital radar processing techniques has made possible the analysis of radar signals on many general purpose digi tal computers. Of special interest are the surface mapping radars, such as the Seasat and the shuttle imaging radars, which utilize a technique known as synthetic aperture radar (SAR) to create high resolution images (pic tures). This data appeals to cartographers, agronomists, oceanographers, and others who want to perform image enhancement, parameter estima tion, pattern recognition, and other information extraction techniques on the radar imagery. The first chapter presents the basics of radar processing: techniques for calculating range (distance) by measuring round trip propagation times for radar pulses. This is the same technique that sightseers use when calculat ing the width of a canyon by timing the round trip delay using echoes. In fact, the corresponding approach in radar is usually called the pulse echo technique.

An authoritative work on Synthetic Aperture Radar system engineering, with key focus on high resolution imaging, moving target indication, and system engineering technology Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is a powerful microwave remote sensing technique that is used to create high resolution two or three-dimensional representations of objects, such as landscapes, independent of weather conditions and sunlight illumination. SAR technology is a multidisciplinary field that involves microwave technology, antenna technology, signal processing, and image information processing. The use of SAR technology continues grow at a rapid pace in a variety of applications such as high-resolution wide-swath observation, multi-azimuth information acquisition, high-temporal information acquisition, 3-D terrain mapping, and image quality improvement. Design Technology of Synthetic Aperture Radar provides detailed coverage of the fundamental concepts, theories, technology, and design of SAR systems and sub-systems. Supported by the author’s over two decades of research and practice experience in the field, this in-depth volume systematically describes SAR design and presents the latest research developments. Providing examination of all topics relevant to SAR—from radar and antenna system design to receiver technology and signal and image information processing—this comprehensive resource: Provides wide-ranging, up-to-date examination of all major topics related to SAR science, systems, and software Includes guidelines to conduct grounding system designs and analysis Offers coverage of all SAR algorithm classes and detailed SAR algorithms suitable for enabling software implementations Surveys SAR and computed imaging literature of the last sixty years Emphasizes high resolution imaging, moving target indication, and system engineering Design Technology of Synthetic Aperture Radar is indispensable for graduate students majoring in SAR system design, microwave antenna, signal and information processing as well as engineers and technicians involved in SAR system techniques.

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.

Multi-Dimensional Imaging with Synthetic Aperture Radar: Theory and Applications provides a complete description of principles, models and data processing methods, giving an introduction to the theory that underlies recent applications such as topographic mapping and natural risk situational awareness – seismic-tectonics, active volcano, landslides and subsidence monitoring - security, urban, wide area and infrastructure control. Imaging radars, specifically Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), generally mounted onboard satellites or airplanes, are able to provide systematic high-resolution imaging of the Earth's surface. Recent advances in the field has seen applications to natural risk monitoring and security and has driven the development of many operational systems. - Explains the modeling and data processing involved in interferometric and tomographic SAR - Shows the potential and limitations of using SAR technology in several applications - Presents the link between basic signal processing concepts and state-of-the-art capabilities in imaging radars - Explains the use of basic SAR processing tools and datasets