Tomiyasu, 1978

PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, VOL. 66, NO.
5, MAY 1978 563
Tutorial Review of Synthetic-Aperture Radar

(SAR) with Applications to Imaging of
the Ocean Surface
KIYO TOMIYASU
Invited Paper
Abrrmct-A synthetic rperture td.t ( S A R ) an produce high-

maohtion twcdimensiorul images of mapped areas.The SAR corn-
p h 8 pUkd hUE l&l kXU ,I mtelUU,and I phrseC0h-t -her.
TheSARisbornebyaconst.atvelodtyvehidenrch~.niirarftor U
mtellite, with the antenna beam axis oriented obliquely to the velodty
vector. The huge p h e is defined by the velocity vector md antenna
bea m & Theimageorthogodcoordimteaxenngedaolgnnge
(azimuth). The amplitude and phme of the received sign& xe cdlected
for the durationof an integrationtime after which the signrl is procesed.
High range resdution is achieved by the UE of wide bandwidth trans- Fig. 1. Besic radar block diagram.
mitted pulaea High azimuth resdution is achieved by focusing, with a
+d processing technique, an extremely long antenna that is synthe-
a ~ e dfrom the coherent phme h istory. The pulae repetition frequency dimensional radar images of large areas can be produced with
of the SAR is conrtnined within bounds established by the geometry high spatial resolution.
md nigd ambiguity limits.
S A R operation requiresrelative motion between ndrr md tar@ This paper is ihtended for thestudent in SAR; as such, more
Nomid velocity d u e s are rslumed for signal processing md meaau- sophisticated design details have been omitted intentionally.
able deviations are used for emor compensation. Reridurl uncertainties It is hoped that those working in related technologies will also
md high-order derivatives of the velocity which are difficdt to corn find this paper of value to them. An attempt has been made
penmte may a w e image wearing, &focus@, md m di m g e to convey only the basic physical concepts invoked in a SAR
s&&bes. TheSARtradomstheoceanaarfaremtonumemusd
cells, each with dmid nsof rrnge md azimuth re!aolutioa. An image imaging the ocean surface.
ofrcenanbeproducedprovidedtherdnaws~nofthecenis Active and passive microwave sensors are being used to make
M i n t & hr@ and the cell phase history is deterministic. Ocean remote observations of the earth during day or night, through
waves evidently move M i n t l y uniformly to produce SAR s* cloud cover, and even through light rain [ 21. A SAR operat-
which correlate well with optial photograph md vimal o bm ot
in s.
The relatiomhip between S A R i m a g ~md oceanic p h y W features is ing at a microwave frequency can produce two-dimensional
not completely pndentood, and m m mdyces and investigationsare images of large area targets rapidly with the SAR mounted on
desired. an aircraft, and global coverage is potentially possible from
spacecraft. Global observation of oceanic waves offer the po-
1. INTRODUCTION tential of providing such useful data as surface wind speed,
A RADAR IS an electromagnetic wave sensor having a wind direction, significant wave height, etc., for meteorologi-
pulsed microwave transmitter, antenna, and receiver [ 1] . cal forecasting and the prediction of disastrous oceanic storms.
The antenna can be time-shared between transmitter and High resolution in range is attained using transmitted pulses
receiver by utilizing a circulator as shown in Fig. 1. The pulse that are effectively of very short duration. In a conventional
transmitter signal is radiated by the antenna, reflected from radar high range resolution is attained relatively easily; how-
thetarget, and sensed by the receiver. The reflected signal ever, high resolution in azimuth becomes exceedingly difficult,
time delay is proportional to target range. The range resolu- especially at long ranges, because of the need for huge anten-
tion 6, is determined by the effective radar pulse length 7 , and nas. In a SAR, the radar platform moves along a straight path
6, = c 7 / 2 where c is light velocity. The azimuthal or cross- in a direction oblique(typically at right angles) to the target to
range direction of the target is established by the orientation be imaged as shown in Fig. 2. A coherent phase history of the
of the antenna beam. The azimuthal or cross-range angular pulsed return signal is generated, and, through a signal process-
resolution is determined by the antenna beamwidth which is ing technique, extremely high resolution in the azimuth direc-
related to antenna size. In a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) to tion is attained without recourse to physically large antennas.
be described, the azimuthal resolution can be very significantly In effect, a large aperture antenna is thus synthesized.
improved by the use ofa phase coherent signal processing SAR began with an observation by Carl Wiley in 1951 that a
technique which integrates manytransmitted pulses. Two- radar beam oriented obliquely to the radar platform velocity
vector will receive signals having frequencies offset from the
radar carrier frequency due tothe Doppler effect [ 31. He
Mmusaipt received October 2 6 , 1977;revised January 30, 1978.
The author is with the General Electric Co., Valley Forge Space Cen- noted that the Doppler frequency spread was related to the
ter, Philadelphia, PA 19101. width of the antenna beam and could be split and filtered in
0018-9219/78/0500-OS63$00.75 O 1978 IEEE

Authorized licensed use limited to: Universita degli Studi di Roma La Sapienza. Downloaded on October 09,2022 at 21:26:14 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
564 PROCEEDINGS OF THEIEEE, VOL. 66, NO. 5, MAY 1918
eccentricity, imaging of moving targets, various sources of er-

ISOMETRIC VIEW rors, signalprocessing principles, radar frequency selection,
signal-to-noise ratio, transmitter design,receiverdesign,and
ocean wave images. Some design refinements and operational
error corrections are also introduced.
11. THE SYNTHETIC APERTURE

The resolution capability of a radar is specified in the range
and cross-range (azimuth) directions. The range resolution 6,
of all radars depends on an effective transmitted pulse length
T or alternatively on a signal bandwidth. The angular cross-
range or azimuth resolution depends on an equivalent antenna
beamwidth. In a conventional radar the angular azimuth reso-
~ E A M
FOOTPRINT
lution is specified by the 3-dB or half-power beamwidth. The
one-way 3-dB beamwidth 0 1 3is given nominally by
Fig. 2. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) geometry.
d I 3 = h / L rad
the receiver, such that the desired antenna beamwidth could where X is the radar wavelength, and L is the antenna aperture
be made narrower. He also noted that for a given frlter band- size.
width, the narrowest angular beam would occur broadside to Usually it is assumed that the antenna is focused to infinity,
the platform velocity. In the ensuing years activity continued i.e., aperture with uniform phase, and the beamwidth is de-
on analyses and signal processing techniques, refining the capa- fined in the far zone. The linear azimuth resolution 6,, at a
bilities, and developing the hardware. Numerous papers have distance R is
been written on this subject [4]. For background material the 6,, = Re13 =RAIL.
reader may find helpful the discussion by Cutrona [ 5 1 and the
books written byHarger [6] and Rihaczek 171. Kovaly [8] For a given range R and given wavelength X, if L is increased
has recently published a collection of useful papers on SAR. then a, is decreased. With very large values of L due consid-
SAR processing entails the correlation of the return signal eration must be given to thefar zone condition of the antenna.
phase with that of a suitable reference signal. If the reference The far zone distance R f , is given by
signal phase involves many cycles, this is called a focused syn- R f , = 2L2/X.
thetic aperture which is discussed in this paper. The formation
of a synthetic aperturecan be simplified by using a shorter his- From a point on the beam axis at R f , , the path length varia-
tory of return signal and a corresponding reduction in refer- tion across the antenna aperture is symmetrical and is h/16 for
ence signal phase change. In this case the azimuth resolution a one-way path. The angular direction from the beam axis for
will degrade. In the limit, the simplest synthetic aperture can half-power response is f 0 1 3 / 2= X/(2L) rad. When viewed in
be formed with a constant phase reference signal and a rela- this direction at range R f , , the one-way phase across the aper-
tively short history of return signal. This is called an unfocused ture will appear to have a linear slope with a total phase
synthetic aperture [ 5 ] and will not be discussed. change of n radians.
The SAR image plane is defined by the radar platform veloc- In a SAR application, which is a phase coherent system, the
ity vector U and the radar antenna beam axis F. The image co- antenna beamwidth and phase must be considered over a two-
ordinates are range, time delay, and range rate (Doppler). The way path so that the net two-way 3-dB beamwidth 023 is nar-
SAR antenna beam can be pointed in any oblique direction rower than 6 by one-half, and it is given approximately by
relative to E, however, there is a geometrical constraint involv-
ing the object scene plane normal 6. The constraint requires 023 = h/(2Lsa)
that 6 must not lie in the SAR image plane. In vector notation where L,, is the aperture length. The subscript “sa” antici-
pates synthetic aperture.
(UXX).n^#O.
Other vector identities are iJ. (X X 6)and a (6X E). An A. Near-Zone Focused Long Array
equivalent constraint applies when SAR imagery is taken with At an arbitrary range R o , the linear azimuth resolution can
a stationary radar platform and a moving object scene. be made arbitrarily f i e by utilizing a large value of Lsa. With
Assuming that the geometrical constraint is satisfied, a com- very large L,, it is possible for R f , to exceed R o , and the an-
x
monly used direction of is perpendicular to E. This is called tenna is then focused in the near zone [ 121, [ 131 to achieve a
linear azimuth resolution given by
“broadside,” and this SAR geometry is assumed in this paper.
If the direction is not broadside, it is called squint beam SAR
[ 5 1 , [ 9 ] -[ 111 , and it offersa forward- or rearward-look capa-
bility. The signal processing becomes considerably more com-
plex, and it requires a longer integration time or signal history
for a given azimuth resolution. The squint beam SAR is not B. Close Target SeparabiIify
discussed in this paper. The basic principles of the SAR are The spatial resolution of a long focused array can also be de-
discussed, as well as the physical signifcance of a synthetic f i e d by its capability of resolving two close targets [ 71. This
aperture, the nature of range and azimuth ambiguities, imaging can be achieved if the difference in the path lengths equals
coverage rate, effects due to earth rotation and satellite-orbit one-half wavelength. By referring to Fig. 3, the long array has
TOMIYASU: SYNTHETIC-APERTURE RADAR 565
SLANT PLANE VIEW SLANT PLANE VIEW
NEAREST
RANGE
c TARGET
Fig. 3. Close target separability. L RADAR

MOVING WITH
VELOtlN I
Fig. 4. Radar-target geometry.

a length L,,, and the mid-array range to the target is R o . The
array tip range R to thetarget is given by
R =dRi + ( S - L,,/2)2 For a specified azimuth resolution 6,, the required dwell time
TD = XRo/(26,,u). A radar illumination time of TD (which is
where s = separation between two targets. The derivative is typically in the order of one second) can be provided with a
dR
-=
s - L,,/2 one-way radar antenna beamwidth 19,
= L,,/Ro. This beam-
ds RO width requires a small radiator (radar antenna) length LR =
X/&. An equation involving L,, and LR can be obtained
At s = 0, the derivative is from
--
A- L
R , ,-- Lsa A
AS 2Ro' = i T0 = -L R
A one-half wavelength totalpathdifference is equivalent to or
A R = A/4, so that the spatial resolution A s which is equal to
olution
azimuth the sa, becomes A R o = LR Lsa.
The azimuth resolutioncan be written as
C. Synthesized Antenna A ~ Q Y
To illustrate the previous discussion, consider the following:
to achieve Sa, = 15 m at a target range of Ro = lo6 m with The azimuth resolution of a focused SAR is equal to one-half
X = 0.1 m, the aperture length L,, is 3.333 X lo3 m and OZ3 = the radar-antenna length L R , and this resolution is indepen-
1.5 X lo-' rad. For this example, Rf,= 2.222 X 10'm, so dent of radarfrequency and range. The azimuthresolution
that the targetis in the near zone of this large aperture antenna. 6,, is also equal to one half the radar wavelength ( X / 2 ) divided
Such an antenna array, 3.33 kilometers long, is impractical for by the radian viewing angle either of the target by the radar
aircraft or spacecraft. Fortunately, the array need not neces (OR) or the radar from the target (Lsa/R). Very fine resolu-
sarily be continuous, but can be composed instead of numer- tion images can, in principle, be produced with a small low-
ous small elemental radiators placed sufficiently close together gain radar antenna (small L R ) , but because of the low antenna
to prevent grating lobes in the angular directions of interest, gain, very high power transmitters are required fortarget
and properly phased to focus the aperture at range R o . Fur- detection.
ther, it is not necessary for all elements to radiatesimulta-
neously since each of the elements can.be excited in sequence D. Doppler Frequency
provided an orderly coherent phase relationship is maintained. The SAR involves phase coherent signal processing, and, for
Hence, a physically smaller radiator can be carried aboard a an isolated target, the phase history during theintegration
platform moving at a constant velocity u with the radar trans- time follows a quadraticphase function, as will be shown. The
mitting pulses periodically as the radiator is laterally displaced slant-plane radargeometry is illustrated inFig. 4. It is as-
by a proper amount. In this manner, the equivalent of avery sumed that the radar antennabeam axis is oriented at right an-
long antenna array with length L,, is synthesized from anum- gles (broadside) to the radar platform velocity vector. The an-
ber of small elements equalin number to the pulses transmitted tenna beam illuminates the target when the platform reaches
and integrated coherently. This synthesized antenna array is position x1 but not before. It continues to illuminate the tar-
called asyntheticaperture.Therearecriticallimitsonthe get for a distance L,, until it-reaches x3. The range to the
pulse repetition frequency discussed later under ambiguities. target is R given by
The time that the target is illuminated by the radar beam, or
dwell time, is TD = L J u , where u is the radar platform veloc-
R =dRi + ( X - xo)'
ity. For an aperture length of L,, = UTD,the linear azimuth where
resolution 6,, is given by
R o nearest range to target;
xposition of radarplatform;
x0 platform position corresponding to Ro (x2 in Fig. 4).
566 PROCEEDmGS OF THE IEEE, VOL. 6 6 , NO. 5, MAY 1978
The azimuth beamwidth 0, and L,, are related by RADAR
R, - R, Wg SN Pi
L,, = 2Ro tan (0,/2).
By assuming a narrow antenna beam, i.e., tan (8, /2) A /2
R A Ro + (X - x 0 ) ~ / ( 2 R o ) .
The change in range A R = R - R o is given by
A R = ( X - x0)'/(2Ro).
Corresponding to this range change, the two-way phase change
as a function of x follows a quadratic functiongiven by
$(x) = ( x - X ~ ) ' / ( X R ~ wavelengths.
)
It ii desired to change from the independent position param-
eter x to time t . By assuming a constant velocity u for the
;:
TRANSMIT
ttLfG
radar platform, the displacement x - x . = u(t - t o ) , and the
two-way phase change as a function o f t becomes RECEIVE
25
ma
$ ( t ) = u 2 ( t - t o ) 2 / ( X R o )wavelengths
0 T -TIME ZR,
where t is the timevariable corresponding,to position x. 7 *+ T
A time rate of change in phase causes a frequency shift, and (b)

the two-way Doppler frequency fo is given by the first deriva- Fig. 5 . Radar range characteristics. (a) Elevation view. (b) Pulse
tive of the phase change: characteristics.
f D = 2UZ(t - to)/(XRo).
2(Rp - R n ) / c is considerably shorter than the round-trippulse
It is noted that the Doppler frequency changes linearly with time 2 R f / c . Thus it is possible to transmit pulses in rapid suc-
time, and the total change during the target illumination pe- cession, t o have several pulsesin transit simultaneously, and t o
riodis 2 u 2 T ~ / ( A R o ) = u / 6 , , . avoideclipsing the reflected signals by temporal interlacing
In this section it has been shown that an extremely long an- with the transmitted pulses. Another problem that can poten-
tenna capable of very fine angular resolution can be synthe- tially cause a range ambiguous response is a radar return from
sized from processing the coherent radar signals received by a the nadir direction. Frequently the radar cross section in the
relatively smaller antenna that is periodically pulsed while the nadir direction is very strong. Its effects can be reduced sub-
radar is movingobliquely to theantenna beam. stantially be orienting a radar beam null towards nadir.
111. AMBIGUITIES B. Azimuth Ambiguity-2n Radian shift Between Pulses

As stated, the synthesized antenna consists of numerous ra- The low PRF limit is governed by the geometry that causes
diating elements whose separation is established by the radar- a maximum phase shift of 2n rad from pulse-to-pulse of m y
pulse repetition frequency and platform velocity. There are target illuminated by a broadside oriented radar beam. The
limiting values on the pulse repetition frequency (PRF) im- targets of principal concern occur at beam edge in the azimuth
posed by geometry. Thus, if the PRFis so high that return sig- plane. If a 2n-rad phase shift occurs, there will be ambiguity
nals from two successive transmitted pulsesarrivesimulta- in distinguishing these targets from other targets at the same
neously at thereceiver, there will be ambiguity in theresponse. range that cause zero phase shift (zero Doppler). The zero
Conversely, if the PRF is so low that the reflected signal phase phase shift targets lie on a plane that is oriented at right angles
of any target changes by 2 n radians or more between two suc- to the radar platform velocity vector or at the center of the
cessive pulses, there will again beambiguity in the response. broadside beam. There are different approaches to establish-
ing the low PRF limit, and four are presented here. It is in-
A. Range Ambiguity structive to examine these approaches for the insight they af-
The high PRF limit is governed by the elevation beamwidth ford intothe SAR concept.In allcases, it is shown that
geometry and radar-pulse propagation time [14]. An eleva- PRFlOw= u/(LR/ 2 ) where u is radar platform velocity and LR
tion view of the radar beam geometry is depicted in Fig. 5(a). is radar antenna size. The first approach considers a maximum
The beam intercepts theground at near range R , and far range of2n-rad shift during a pulse-repetition period. The second
R p The ground swath width Wg = ( R f - R,)/sin $i, where & approach stipulates that the PRF must exceed the maximum
is the incidence angle. In Fig. 5(b) a timing diagram is illus- Doppler frequency. Thethird approach is based on the re-
trated with a transmitted pulse of length T and a received pulse quirement that the number of pulses integrated must exceed
signal starting at t = 2R,/c and ending at t = 2 R f / c + T . The the number of azimuth resolution cells across the radar linear
high PRF limit of receiving simultaneous return signals from beamwidth. Finally, the low PRF limit is examined in terms
two successive pulses is given by of a synthesized linear array antenna that places the array grat-
ing lobes in the directions of nulls of the element pattern.
PRFhigh = 1 / [ 2 ~ + 2 ( R f - R , ) / c ] .
In the first approach to a lower PRF limit, the tolerable two-
This upper PRF limit is commonly called the range ambiguity way phase shift during the interpulse period is 271 rad for a tar-
limit. In practice the highest operating PRF is set lower than get at azimuthal beamedge. The slant plane geometry is
that limit. In some applications the received pulse. length shown in Fig. 6, and the radar range R to a target at beam edge
SLANT PLANE VIEW SLANT W E VIEW
- TARGET
RADAR \
Fie. 6. Beam edge target geometry.
- . zve
is given by fD=
x = x
a'
Fig. 7. Doppler frequency geometry.
R = d R %+ (OR0 - ut)'
where 8 is the angle from beam axis and t is the time from
nearest range ( R o ) location. By taking the time derivative of
R and noting that R is approximately equal to R o
dR
-=
dt ue. nay = ROB
A 2n-rad two-way phase shift at beam edge is equivalent to

AR = X/2. The direction of beam edge is arbitrarily chosen to
be the f i t null of the one-way radar beam pattern so that
RADAR
",E: OF)
N4,
2 A Z l M u MOF
I
CELLS.n
8 = fX/LR, where LR is radar-antenna size. This direction is
selected to minimize the azimuth ambiguity response. In this Fig. 8. Azimuthal cells within linear beamwidth.
calculation the time interval A t is the interpulse period, so
PRF = l/At. The lower PRF limit is given by D. Azimuth Ambiguity-Integrated Pulses Equal to Azimuth
Cells
The third approach is based on the stipulation that n pulsed
measurements are necessary to solve n unknowns. The num-
This equation implies that the transmitter must be pulsed be- ber of pulsed measurements is equal to the product of the PRF
fore the radar platform moves a distance equal to one-half the and integration time Tg, i.e., n = PRF X To. The n unknowns
antenna size. For high-quality imagery, the lowest operational of interest are the total number of azimuth resolution cells at
PRF should be perhaps 25 percent greater than this PRFl,,. range R o Which OCCUPY the linear beamwidth 8 R 0 = R 0 2 X/LR
where 8 is the one-way null-null angular beamwidth. This is
C. Azimuth Ambiguity-PRF Equal to Doppler Frequency shown in Fig. 8. The total signal ER( t ) at the receiver is the
In the second approach, the PRF must equal or exceed the complex sum ofthe reflected signals from n resolvable scatterers
maximum Doppler shift of the return signals. The transmitted at range R 0 . This can be written as
signal has spectralcomponents separated in frequency from
the camer by an amount equal to the PRF. The received sig-
nal has additional spectral components separated in frequency
from the camer determined by the Doppler shift from the tar- where Eiis the complex reflected signal from scatterer i. The
gets illuminated by the antenna beam. Targets at the center of azimuth resolution sa, is R o X / ( 2 u T ~ so ) that the number of
the broadside beam will return signals with zero Doppler shift. resolvable cells is 8 R o / 6 , , = ~ u T D I L R .The number of pulsed
Targets ahead of broadside center are characterized by a posi- measurements is PRF X (8 R o ) / u = PRF X ( 2 R o X)/(LRU).
tive Doppler and those behind by negativeDoppler frequencies. Thus the lower PRF limit is
If the return of a target is shifted in frequency by an amount
equal to the PRF, the receiver will be unable to distinguish the U U
PRF,,, = - =-
pulsed return signal from that of a target on broadside center. sa, LR/2' '
Thus the PRF has to be sufficiently high to exceed the maxi-

mum Doppler shift of targets located at beamedge. The E. Azimuth Ambiguity-Array Grating Lobe at Element Null
Doppler shift f D due to a radial velocity ur is given by In the last approach the synthesized linear array antenna is
2 ur analyzed. The overall array pattern is confiired so that a
f D = c f low response occurs in the angular direction of the f i i grating
lobe where the Doppler frequency is equal to the PRF. The
where f is the radar frequency and c is the light velocity. usual normalized linear antenna array pattern E L A is given by
By referring to Fig. 7, ur = u sin 8 2 u 8 . The angle 8 to the the product of a normalized array factor EAF and a normalized
f m t null of the one-way radar illumination beam is 8 = f h/LR. element pattern E E P ,that is, ELA = EAFEEP[ 151. The nor-
Thus the lower limit of the PRF is malized synthesized array pattern for a SAR differs in the fol-
lowing way. The normalized array factor is modified to ac-
countfor the two-way coherent phase effect, and this is
accomplished by doubling the element spacing Dpp that ap-
568 PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, VOL. 66, NO. 5, MAY 1978
differential one-way range of f h/2 from a distant target occurs

between elements separated by Dpp. Thus, the first two-way
grating lobe occurs at an angle 8 = f(X/2)/Dpp = fh/(2Dpp).
The element spacing Dpp is established by the radar platform
velocity u and the PRF so that Dpp = u/PRF or PRF = u/Dpp.
In the direction of the first grating lobe theDoppler frequency
is equal to thePRF, and this equivalence can be readily shown.
BROADSDE
MAIN LOBE
FIRST
GRATING LOBE
The Doppler frequency
x 2DPP
DPP
The Doppler frequency is u/Dpp and this is also PRF.

The overall synthesized array configuration must suppress
these grating lobes to eliminate azimuth ambiguity. The grat-
TWO-WAY
ing lobe response can be minimized by matching the angular
directionof a grating lobe to the direction of a null in
the element-illumination pattern. The one-way normalized
element-radiation pattern of an element large in size relative to
wavelength is given by [ 151
(C) Both one-way and two-way element patterns are shown in Fig.
Fig. 9. Linear-array pattern.(a) Nelement array configuration. (b) 9(c). The first null occurs where ~ L 8R/ h = f n, so that the
Two-way array factor, in-phase excitation. (c) Element pattern.
null direction is
6 '*h/LR.
pears in the argument of the sine terms. The normalized
element pattern is also modified in that thegain has to be consid- By equating a n d a r directions
ered in two directions. See Fig. 9. Thus, the normalized syn-
thetic array pattern E,, (L,,, 8) of array length L,, is the prod- e =-- A --h
uct of a normalized two-way array factor Ez,(2Dpp,8)and the 2DPP LR
normalized two-way element pattern Eze(LR , 8) where LR is or
the element length. Thus
LR
Dpp = - .
2
The normalized two-array factor Ezo is derived from the one-
This means that the PRF must be sufficiently high so that the
way array factor with element spacing Dpp by merely doubling transmitter is pulsed again by the time the antenna moves by
the element spacing to 2Dpp to obtain
one half its length. This is equivalent to
sin [2DppN(n/X) sin 81
= N sin [ 2Dpp (n/X)sin 81
where All of the four approaches to establish the lower limit of PRF
Dpp distance between elemental radiators, or pulse-to- have yielded the same value, and the four concepts are physi-
pulse displacement of radar antenna; cally equivalent. These approaches to avoid azimuth ambigu-
8 angle from array broadside; ity can be summarized by stating that the first is a maximum
N number ofpulses integrated. 2n-rad phase-shift limit between pulses, the second is equating
the PRF tothe maximumDoppler frequency, the third is
For a long array, NDpp is large, and the angular values of in- equating the number of pulsed measurements to the number
terest become small. Thus, an approximate value of Eza can of azimuth resolution cells, and the fourth provides a very low
be written synthetic array pattern response in the direction of array grat-
ing lobes.
F. Minimum Antenna Area

The two-way 3-dB beamwidth is hl(2NDpp) = h/(2LSa)where T o avoid range and azimuth ambiguities, PRF design margins
N = PRF X T D , and the syntheticarray length L,, = UTD. The are required for reasonably high quality SAR images from real-
first one-way sidelobe level is - 13.2 dB relative to the main istic hardware. For instance, the PRF may be constrained by
lobe, andit occurs at an angle of *3h/(4NDpp) from themain- the following inequality:
lobe center. The two-way sidelobe level is 26.4 dB below the
mainlobe level. The first two-way grating lobe occurs where a 1.25 P R F l O w < PRF < 0.75 PRFhigh.
E. PLAN VIEW
Since the PRFlimits areestablished by thegeometry, a mini- BEAM
FOOTPRINT
mum radar antenna size can be derived by considering only the FROM
ratio of the PRF limits. The ratio of the PRF limits is given by A. ELEVATION VIEW ,f '1 TARGET-A
The following quantities are now defined: 1) ground swath

Rf -------n
fl
width Wg = (Rp - R,)/sin &, where @i = incidence angle; 2 ) ra-
dar beamwidth inthe elevation plane is A/HR = ( Wg cos &)/R 0 ,
where HR is the radar antenna height and R o = radar range; 3)
radar antennaarea AR = L R HR .
If it is assumed that the transmit-pulse length 7 << 2(Rp - FAR I TARGET -A
R , ) / c , then the antenna area A R required to satisfy the two
ambiguity constraints isgiven by
C. SIGNAL FILM
RANGE
J i
,
/ SIGNAL HISTORY
A T RANGE Ro
The antenna area is related to the ratio PRFwg/PRF1,,, and

this ratio is always greater than unity. If the ratiois near unity
NEAR
RANGE
x2
t2 '3
xg '4
t4 -+ POSITION
TIM
Fig. 10. Pulsed SAR and signal Tim.

there exists a minimum antenna area that will assure simulta-
neous compliance with both ambiguity constraints. Operation-
ally, a ratio too near unity is undesirable since this provides no
recently discussed [ 11I , [ 191, [ 201, and these approaches
allowance for design and hardware margins. Note that the re-
offer the potential of near real time imaging.
x,
quired antenna size increases with v, R o , and tan #i. Addi-
tional discussion of antenna size requirements to avoid both
ambiguities can be found in the literature [ 141, [ 161. A . Target Phase History
There are upperand lower limitson theSAR pulse-repetition
In this paper, only the optical method of signal processing
frequency to avoid ambiguities, and these limits have a domi- will be discussed since it can readily convey the physical prin-
nant effect on the mapping rate to be discussed in Section VI.
ciples involved. To simplify the discussion, a single target ge-
ometry is examined first, followed by a multiple target exam-
IV. SIGNALPROCESSING ple. In Fig. 10(a) an elevation view is shown of a SAR at an
A two-dimensional image scene of a radar-mapped area can altitude H with radar antenna beam of width 0, which inter-
be produced by coherently processing the phase history of the cepts the ground at near range R , and far range R f . In Fig.
signals received by a SAR. The image plane is defined by the 10(b) a plan view of the geometry is shown with the abscissa
radar platform velocity vector and the radar antenna beam axis. axis depicting the ground-track position of the radar platform
The two orthogonal axes of the processed image are range and moving at a constant velocity. Thus, the abscissa can be con-
cross-range (azimuth). The position along the range axis is de- sidered as either position or time. The ordinate axis in Fig.
termined by time delay of the received pulse, and the posi- 10(b) is ground range, and targets A and E are shown at differ-
tion along the cross-range axis is determined by range rate of ent ranges. The radar-antenna beam axis is oriented at right
the target distance or the Doppler frequency of the return sig- angles to the radar-platform velocity vector, and the azimuth
nal from the target. Three-dimensional physical features of beamwidth is 6,. At time t l , the radar is located at ground
the mapped surface are projected by the processing technique position xl. The beam is yet at some distance from the first
into thistwo-dimensional plane. A method of obtaining three- target A so that no signal is received. At a later time t 2 the ra-
dimensional images using a dual-channel vertical interferometric dar is at position x2. Now the radar beam first illuminates the
receiver has been reported [ 171 . target, and a reflected signal is detected. In Fig. lO(c), a por-
As stated previously, the SAR image has high resolution in tion of a signalfilm strip is shown. The width of the signal
both range and cross range directions. High resolution in range film corresponds to the ground swath illuminated by the radar
is achievedby the useofvery shorttransmitted pulsesand beam. The film width is shown related to the time A t required
wide bandwidths. In the cross range direction high resolution for a radar pulse to sweep across the beam footprint on ground,
is achieved by the use of a synthesized antenna and coherent i.e., A t = 2(Rf - Rn)/c. The received phase history from each
processingof the phase history of thereturn signals from transmitted pulse is recorded across the width of the signal
many successive pulses. This process of achieving high resolu- film. Between pulses the film is advanced by small increments.
tion in the cross range direction is sometimes called azimuth Thus, a position across the film width corresponds to range
compression. The total phase and amplitude history of a tar- position, and a position along the film length corresponds to
get mustbe collected for the duration of the integration or along-track position of the radar platform. In Fig. 10(b), the
dwell time before signal processing can commence. The inte- target is first illuminated when the radar platform travels to
gration time involved is on the order of a second, depending position x 2 , and in Fig. 1O(c), a target response is depicted at
on the application. range Ro. Thereafter, until time t4 or radar platform position
Two signal processing techniques are discussed in the litera- x4 each transmitted pulse will produce a detected signal; this is
ture. The opticalmethod requiring photographicequipment illustrated in Fig.lO(c). The target is illuminated between
[ 181 is quitemature and numerous processedimageshave time t 2 and t 4 , and this interval is called the integration or
been reported. Digital methods utilizing computers have been dwell time. It is noted that the distance traversed by the radar
510 PROCEEDINGS
IEEE, OF THE VOL. 66, NO. 5 , MAY 1978
OUADRATIC PHASE HISTORY

platform while illuminating the target is x4 - xz, the synthetic
aperture length, and this dimension is exactly the linear beam- PHASE AFTER
width of the radar antenna beam at range R o , i.e., x4 - x2 = SUBTRACTING
dA Ro where dA is azimuth beamwidth. A second target B is 2 a RADIANS
located at a range nearer than R o , and the signal history length 411 RADIANS
is much shorter as depicted in Fig. l q c ) . 6P RADIANS
The phase history of a target is a quadratic functionof time,
and this is related to range history. The target range R is given
approximately by
where
Ro nearest range to target; Fig. 1 1. Coherent addition of receiver and reference signals.
t' t - t3;
t time; R o = lo6 m, v = 7.6 X l o 3 mls, and TD = 0.439 s, then 6, =
t3 time when the target appears at the middle of the radar 15 m, and the depth of focus is 1.8 X lo4 m. With coarse azi-
beam. muth resolution and a narrow range swath a single quadratic
The relative tweway phase history is aquadraticfunction phase function may be adequate for signal processing the en-
given by tire image.
2(R - Ro)/hwavelengths C. Signul Film
@= (Ut')2 The signal amplitude and phase history is recorded 0% film
{x wavelengths.
after phase coherent addition of the received signal with a ref-
erence signal. When two signals are in phase a higher combined
level is obtained than when out of phase. The quadratic phase
The maximum amount of phase shift depends on illumination
time and, hence, on azimuth resolution 6az. Thus, history of a single target is shown in Fig. 11. The abscissa can
be either time or platform position. The ordinate represents
--
= x- ARO wavelengths.
la&:,
phase or timeafterthe pulse is radiated.Aftersubtracting
multiples of 2n rad the dashed line phase function in Fig. 11
is obtained. When the receiver and reference signals are coher-
It is noted that @max is proportional to target range R o and ently added, the resultant amplitude response is shown by the
inversely to 6 i Z . bottom curve in Fig. 11. It is assumed that the ratio of refer-
A lens to focus the phase history is found to be proportional ence (AREF) to receive ( A R E C )signal amplitudes is 3. The
to R o . A thin lens has a focal length given approximately by spatial pattern is similar to that of a Fresnel zone plate in op-
D2/(8Az) where D is lens diameter and Az is the optical path tics. When recorded on a signal film with the use of a narrow
difference between rays passing through the lens center and beam of light there will be a series of bright (or dark) spots
lens edge. In the present example D = UTD and Az = that are aligned parallel to the film direction with the spots
Thefocallength is R o / 2 , and this type of lens is called a closer together at thetwo ends than in the middle of the series.
"conical" lens. The length of the spot series corresponds to thesynthetic aper-
B. Depth o f Focus ture length or the signal integration time. An example of raw-
data signal film is shown in Fig. 12. The ordinate and abscissa
The accuracy with which a given quadratic phase function
axes are range and along-track directions, respectively. When a
must be matched to the rangedepends on the tolerable phase
suitable Fresnel zone plateor a lensis aligned over the series of
error across the aperture Lsa. This is called depth offocus [71.
spots, and when a parallel beam of coherent light is passed
It is assumed that two-way and one-way phase errors of h / 4
through both the lens and the signal film, the light beam is
and X/8, respectively, can be arbitrarily allowed at the ends of
brought to a focus. This is a Fourier transformation process.
the aperture. The nearest range to the tar et is R o , and the
The physical registration of the lens is important since any
range from aperture ends is R = dR&. The deriva-
misalignment will destroy the focus. It should be noted that a
tive dR/dRo = R o / R . The one-way phase error across the aper-
smaller diameter lens with the same focal lengthwill also focus
ture caused by improper positioning of the quadratic function
the beam, but the azimuth resolution will degrade inversely
is IAR - A R o ( = f h/8. The total depth of focus (DOF) is
2ARo and with the diameter.
2hR; D. Optical Processing

DOF = -
To properly focus the signal history of a target at any range,
the lens must meet certain requirements. For a given azimuth
or resolution ,6, thelenswidthcorresponds to the synthetic-
aperture length or signal integration time and, hence, it is pro-
portional to target range. The lens thicknessis proportional to
@max and,hence, to target range. These twophysicalcon-
The depth of focus becomes shallower or the focus becomes straints make the lensappear conical in shape. SeeFig. 13.
more critical as a, is made smaller. For example, if h = 0.1 m, The focal lengthof the lens is also proportional to target range.
TOMIYASU:SYNTHETIC-APERTURE RADAR 571
\ CONICAL LENS
SIGNAL HISTORY
f
CYLINDRICAL LENS
f LENS
PLANE WAVE
COHERENT
LIGHT BEAM
IMAGE FILM ARE

TRANSPORTED IN
SYNCHRONISM
Fig. 13. Optical processing of signal fdm.
This conical lens will produce images of all targets differing in range resolution bin is the complex addition of all reflected
range but lying in one azimuth or cross-track direction. These signals ri
from targets at that range illuminated by the radar
images will appear on one line across the width of the image antenna beam.Each target is characterized by a separate
film. The conical lens is then shifted in the direction of the quadratic phase function. Mathematically the return signal is
film strip by one azimuth resolution distance to produce the
next line of images in the range direction. Auxiliary optics rr= n ri
composed of cylindrical and spherical lenses are used to pro-
ject the target images onto the image film [ 51. An example where Ei = reflected wave from target i.
of a SAR image is shown in Fig. 14. By using an X-band SAR In general, Er will change from pulse to pulse due to a change
with five-foot range resolution and seven-foot azimuth resolu- in the relative geometry. The Er amplitude and phase history
tion, the Environmental Research Institute ofMichigan has is processed and recorded on film in the same manner as that
taken a radar image of a scenealong the Huron River near for a single target example discussedabove. Fourier trans-
Detroit, MI, and this image is shown in Fig. 14, An enlarge- formed images of the targets will appear at their proper rela-
ment of the radar image of an orchard along the Huron River tive positions as the conical lens and auxiliary optics are
is shown in Fig. 15. The radar subtrack is parallel to the ordi- moved along the length of the signal film.
nate and is below the images. As mentioned earlier a uniformly weightedlong array has
nearestone-waysidelobelevels that are 13.2 dB below the
E. Multiple Targets mainlobe, and the signal processed two-way sidelobe level will
The presence of a multiplicity of targets at the same range thus be26.4dBbelow the mainlobe. In some applications
but differing in azimuthal position is discussed. From each 26.4-dB sidelobes may not be sufficiently low. The sidelobes
transmitted pulse the total return signal Er for a particular can be reduced further by amplitude weighting the signal his-
512 PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, VOL. 66, NO. 5 , MAY 1978
Fig. 14. SAR image of a scene along Huron River near Detroit, MI. (Courtesy of A. Kozma,Environmental Research Institute of Michigan.)
tory across the synthetic aperture in exactly the same manner sumed value, such as velocity of the radar platform. Where
as tapering the illumination of an antenna aperture [ 2 1I The . deviations are anticipated, provisions can be made for precise
mainlobewidthorazimuthresolution will degrade when determinations, and thesecorrections or compensations can
weighting the aperture. be applied to the data. However, as with all measurements,
In an elementaryopticalprocessor,atroublesomedirect there will still remain a small residual error. These aspects of
light beam w li impinge on the image film which can be elimi- phase errors are discussed in this section.
nated by shifting the range and azimuth spectraby an “offset”
frequency [6],171. A . Range Curvature
The principal sourcesof phase errors are imperfections in the
V. PHASE ERRORS system such as radar-platform velocity deviations, targets in
Since a SAR is a phase-coherent system, the production of motion,electromagnetic path lengthfluctuations,and elec-
high-quality .radar images assumes that: 1) the radar generates tronic equipment instabilities. In addition to these system im-
accurate target phase histories, and 2) the signal processor uti- perfections there is a phase error present in a perfect system
lizes the correctcorrelative phase functions. These two as- that is a consequence of a high resolution geometry. High res-
sumptions may not always be valid. In this section the sources olution applications require long integration times,and the tar-
and effects of these phase errors are discussed. In some in- get range may change SO much that the time delay variation
stances, the phase errors can be compensated, in others not. during the integration time may be comparable to or exceed
The subject of phase errors and their effects is very cornpli- that associated with the range resolution. This effect is called
cated, hence, in this tutorial paperonly a simplified discussion .
range curvature [ 281 The geometry for analysis is the same as
will be given to convey the concepts. The interested reader that used for describing the quadratic phase history. The near-
can pursuethetopicfurtherby referring to the literature est range to the target is R o , and the maximum radar rangeR,
[22]-[28]. during the integration time is
In treating phase errors there are three aspects to the data,
viz. nominal (expected) values, known deviations, and residual
uncertainties.Theprincipalportion is theexpected or as- R, = d R f + ( v T ~ / 2 ) ‘
ADAR TOMIYASU: SYNTHETIC-APERTURE 573
Fig. 15. Enlargement of radar image of an orchard in Fig. 14. (Courtesy of A. Kozma, Environmental Research Institute of Michigan.)
and city is considered. A nominal value can be obtained for an air-

borne radar from a wind-speed indicator or an inertial naviga-
R , - R o +-1 (-=u T D ) ~ -
X2Ro tion system; for a satelliteborne radar, from ephemeris data.
8 Ro 32 62, An aircraft is apt to encounter turbulence so that linear accel-
The range curvature (RC) is R , - R o , and it increases rapidly erometers are used to determine deviations in aircraft velocity
as 6,, decreases. Relative to range resolution 6, the ratio of and position to provide inputsforcorrections to the signal
RC to 6, is processor [ 231, [241. Deviations that are fairly gradual can
be measured and used relatively easily to compensate for phase
errors. Rapid fluctuations which are difficult to measure and
utilize are called residual phase errors. The problem becomes
more acute with high-resolution applications since it is diffi-
For an example, let X = 0.1 m, Ro = 10' m, 6, = 6,, = 15 m, cult to maintain constant aircraft velocity for long time peri-
then RC/6, is 0.09 which is a negligible amount. Ratio values ods. This requirement is discussed later.
in excess of 0.3 will probably causeimage degradation, and
this must be either avoided by design or compensated during C. Effects o f Phase Errors
the signal processing. Qualitativeeffects of variouserrorsources are shown in
Table I. The radar platform errors are divided into the three
B. Radar-Platform Instability principal component directions, i.e., along-track (along the as-
For an illustration of phase errors in an imperfect SAR sumed flight vector), altitude, and cross-track. Thus, for ex-
system, the uncertainty or instability of the radar platformv e b ample, an error in platform altitude may result in image &-
5 74 PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, VOL. 6 6 , NO. 5 , MAY 1978
TABLE I
EFFECTSOF PHASE ERRORS
. __ __
~~ . .
.
ImageMisreg- Image Azimuth Range Range Azimuth Image Main Image Side-
Source of Error istration shift Defocus Defocus walk Walk Lobe loss lobe Increase
_ _ _ ~
Alotfonn
X X
Along-track i X X
f X X X
higher derivatives X X X
X
Altitude 3H X
X X
X
X
Y X
Cros4.track j , X X
Y X X X
Target
R X
Range R X X
R X X X
rivatives higher X X X
X
X X
X X X
X X X
Propagation Path
Iphase jitter X X X X
Electronic Stability
Jphasejitter X X X X
registration since the radar is configured to operate on a range muth defocus.Theerrors are greatest when the satellite is
basis so that an altitude error will result in groundrange error. crossing the equator and least at thehighest latitude of the or-
An error in along-track platform velocity, if appreciable, can bit. Earth rotational speeds can be calculated accurately, and
result in defocusing in azimuth. A derivation of the tolerable the residual uncertainty may be negligible.
uncertainty in along-track velocity is presented later. Because A spaceborne radar offersthe potentialof viewing the global
of azimuth defocus there will be a loss in the main lobe re- ocean surface. The satellite velocity is constant, and satellite
sponse of the image and an increase in image sidelobe level. ephemeris can be accurately predicted; however, Doppler fre-
The synthetic aperture radar platform is assumed to travel at quency shifts and received signal phase errors introduced by
a constant velocity. If there is acceleration, it may cause azi- earth rotation, satellite orbit eccentricity, ionospheric granu-
muth defocus, azimuth resolution-cell walk, image main lobe larity, and moving targets will affect the image [26].The
loss, and increased image sidelobe level. An aircraft altitude SAR antenna beam is assumed to be oriented at right angles to
rate caused by air turbulence, or a satellite altitude rate dueto the satellite velocity vector. If the relative velocity vector be-
orbit eccentricity, may cause the image to shih ixi the cross- tween radar and target has a radial (or range) component inad-
range direction. A derivation of thisimage shift is presented in dition to that due only to satellite velocity, it wil cause the
a later paragraph. Altitude change and earth rotation may dis- image to shift along-track (or cross-range) position unless com-
place a given target by an amount comparable to or exceeding pensated. Furthermore, if the product of the radial compo-
one range resolution cell, called range walk. Second and higher nent of velocity and the radar illumination timeis greater than
order derivatives of the altitude, if of sufficient magnitude, the range resolution distance, range walk occurs as discussed
cause azimuth defocus, range defocus, image main lobe loss, [22], [281, which has to be compensated during signal pro-
and increase in image sidelobe level. The effects due to radar cessing. If the relative-velocity vector has a signifcant compo-
platform cross-track errors are similar to those foraltitude nent parallel to satellite track, the imagewill defocus unless
errors. compensated. Numerical examples of earth rotational and or-
bit eccentricity effects are discussed in thefollowing paragraphs.
D. Earth Rotation Effects The equatorial earth-surface speed is 463 m/s and its effect
Errors in range and range derivatives due to target-location on SAR performancedepends on satelliteposition,satellite
instabilities can cause a multitude of degrading effects. For an velocity, and orbit inclination angle. Earth rotation can cause
airborne SAR, terrestrial targets are regarded as being stable. image shift, range walk, and defocusing effects. A radar radial
For a satellite-borne SAR the satellite orbit planes are refer- component of earth rotation will shift the angular direction of
enced t o space, and terrestrial targets move at earth rotational zero Doppler frequency and hence shift along-track positions
rates which cause various errors such as image shift and azi- of the images unless compensated. Images may be restored to
TOMIYASU: SYNTHETIC-APERTURE RADAR
FLIGHT PATH
/r
GROUND TRACK
Fig. 16. Spherical geometry. A . B, C, are sides of a spherical triangle. Fig. 17. Radar geometry. 0: cone angle, q : cross cone angle, $: satellite
B is an arbitrary meridian. yaw angle, R: alantrange from satellite to earth, e: incidence angle
(from localvertical).
their proper positions withinthe antenna beamwidth by either
1) trimming the receiver local oscillator frequency,or 2) rotat- altitude satellite, the Doppler frequency for a cross-cone angle
ing the antenna beam in yaw about satellite nadir to include of 0.5' is 1300 Hz. Thus, the Doppler frequency due to earth
thezeroDopplerfrequencydirection [ 6 ] , Theamount of rotation is about 2.6 times (3394/1300) higher, and received
signals appear to be reflected from targets in a direction about
compensation for either methodis varied along the satellite or-
1.3' from the antenna-beam boresight. Without compensation,
bitwith peak compensation at equatorial crossing andzero
the processing of these target returns will not normally pro-
compensation at the highest latitude. An along-track compo-
duce images since the apparent targets are outside the antenna
nent of earth rotation may cause image defocusing from a long
beamwidth.
integration time.
An equivalent yaw bias angle of the radar antenna beam to
Fig. 16 illustrates the geometry needed to analyze the effect
compensatethiseffect is computed. Referring again to Fig.
of earth rotation. The arc C represents satellite travelalong its
17, it can be seen that for a ground arclength X
ground track, related to the angle from ascending node 6. The
spherical angle is (i-90) where i is the orbit inclination angle. X = R s i ns qi n=e( l~s i n $ . (3)
Spherical angle fl is used to calculate the component of earth
rotation velocity in the radial direction. Over one-fourth of By equating Doppler equations (1) and (2) and cancelling 2f/c
the orbit it can be seen that fl varies from 3n/2-i at the equa- terms
tor, to 90' at maximum latitude. The radial velocity compo- u sin 17 = ueq sin A cos (p + $) sin &. (4)
nent due to earth rotation is
Dividing (3) by (4) gives
uy = (ueq sin A ) cos (n- fl) sin 4j
sine
where cot $ = t a n p +
Ueq sin 4i cos fl sin A .
ueq equatorial earth rotational velocity;
A arcdistancefrom the pole; For the cited example with 8 = 20°, an antenna yaw bias angle
& incidence angle. $ = 3.736' is required at the equator to compensate for earth
rotation. The yaw bias must be varied along the orbit because
Hence, uy varies from a maximum at the equator to zero at of the fl and A parameters. The amount of antenna yaw is in-
maximum latitude. dependent of radar frequency.
The Doppler frequency shift fD caused by the rotating earth An along-track component of earth rotation may cause im-
is age defocusing. Defocusing becomes significant when the
quadratic phase history over the synthetic aperture deviates in
fD = (2f/c)Veq $j & A cos (n - fl) (1)
excess of about one-quarter radar wavelength. From symme-
where f is radar frequency, and c is the speed of light. With f = try, the phase error is considered over one-half ofthe synthetic
3000 MHz, & = 22.67', and fl = 162', fD is 3394 Hz at the aperture length UTD/~. The radar range at the extremities of
equator. If the receiver local oscillator frequency is shifted in the syntheticaperture is + (UTD/~)'. If this range is dif-
amount equal to theDopplerfrequency, the image will be ferentiated with respect to u , a velocity difference Au that
properly processed. Alternately, the antenna boresignt can be causes a range error ofX/16 can be calculated. The tolerable
redirected to restore the image. This is discussed in the follow- along-track velocity component Au is given by
ing paragraphs.
Fig. 17 shows the radar geometry. The Doppler frequency
in the radar return signal caused by satellite motion over a sta-
tionary earth is where R o is the slant range. Note that the tolerable Au be-
f D = (2f/c)u sin 9 (2) comes more critical.as the azimuthresolution is improved.
For the cited example of a,, E 15m and Ro = 858 km, A u =
where u is satellite velocity and 9 is the cross-cone angle. If 19.7 m/s. Inasmuch as the maximum along-track component
the 3-dB azimuth beamwidth of the radar antenna is lo, and a of earth rotation is 143 m/s, there will be a significant amount
satellite velocity of 7.499 km/s is assumed for an 808-km- of defocusing that must be compensated.
5 76 PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, VOL. 66, NO. 5 , MAY 1978
As stated earlier, a r a d s component of earth rotation will radial velocity component u:' given by
cause the image to shift in the cross-range direction. A radial
u:' = Ut cos /3
component can also cause radar range walk (RRW) and surface
range walk (SRW) by amounts given by where 6 is the angle between target velocity vector and radar
antenna beam axis. The geometrical condition for zero Dopp-
RRW = TD ueq COS ( B - 8) sin &
ler occurs when vi' + u i = 0, and this yields for the direction
SRW = TD ueq COS ( B - 6) 8' of zero Doppler
r
where TD is the radar illumination (integration) time on target.
An illumination time TD equal to 0.38 s will yield an azimuth
resolution of about 15 m and will result in an RRW of about
64 and SRW of 167 m at the equator. By assuming a surface The cross-range physical displacement of the image Ax' is
range resolution of about 15 m, range walkwillhave to be
Ut
compensated inthe signal processing. A X ' = - R o- COS 6 (6)
U
E. Orbit Eccenm'city
where R o is the target range. As to the direction of image
Orbit eccentricity causes an altitude rate and displaces im- shift, a radial target-velocity component towards the radar will
ages in the track direction. With descending altitude, the velo- cause the processed image to appear at a location rearward in
city vector will dip below the local horizon. The zero Doppler the cross-radial direction relative to the location of the pro-
frequency direction is perpendicular to the satellite velocity cessedimage of a stationary target. As an example, if R o =
vector [6] so that the image will shift rearward relative to the 10' m, ut = 10 m/s, u = 7.6 X l o 3 m/s, and /3= 6S0, the image
subsatellite point. The image shift z is given by shift is 556 m.
HH c o s 8 In addition to radial velocity, radial acceleration will . c a u s e
2= image distortion, such as azimuthdefocus, range defocus,
U
range walk, and azimuth walk. The most sensitive effect is azi-
where H is satellite altitude and 8 is beam angle from satellite muth defocus. Thus, if an arbitrary one-half wavelength, two-
nadir. By considering a finite residual orbit eccentricity e = way phase error is allowed during the integrationtime TD,
0.002 for a near perfect circular orbit and also earth gravity then the tolerable uncompensated radial a-leration 2 corre-
zonal harmonics, calculationshave shown that the altitude rate sponds to a radial position error of(3)RT;. This error can
may be as large as 20 m/s [29]. The entire image frame will have a maximum of h/4 for aone-way path. Thus
shift a maximum of 2400 m, and this is negligible when view-
ing waves with an antenna beamwidth of about lo or wider. It RTb X
- Q-
should be noted that since the orbit perigee will migrate, the 2 4
orbital position for maximum altitude rate will also migrate.
and
Similar to the earth rotation effect, compensation for altitude
rate can be accomplished by trimming the receiver local-
oscillator frequencyor by rotating inyaw the antenna-boresight
axis about the local satellite nadir. With an +tegration time
TD of about 0.38 s, the range w g change by HTD cos 8, and As an example, if R = 10' m, X = 0.1 m, u = 7.6 X 10' m/s,
the surface range will change by HTD cos elsin @i. For the ex- a, = 15 m, then the radial acceleration R must be less than
ample cited with a, = 15 m, the surface range will change by 0.26 m/s2.
18.5m,and this requires compensation. The effect of orbit
eccentricity on image focusing is negligible. G. Ionospheric Granuhrity
Another source of phase error is variations inphase velocity
F. Target Motion along the beam propagationpathbetween radar and target.
The discussion has considered targets that are stationary on The ionosphere is composed of layers of free electrons that ex-
the earth's surface but with the earth rotating around its own hibit an index of refraction of less than unity, and the iono-
axis. The phase errors due to earth rotation can be compen- sphere affects phase velocity and, hence, phase coherence. For
sated using deterministic approaches. Phase error is also caused a microwavebeam traversing theionosphere, the physical
by targets moving on the earth's surface. The target motion quantity of interest is thetotal columnarelectroncontent
can beresolved into an along-track component and a cross- (TCEC) along the path given in units of electrons per square
track radial component. An along-track component will cause meter of cross section. The TCEC at midlatitudes typicallyvar-
azimuth defocusing and (5) can be used to quantify the effect. ies diurnally between 0.2 X 10' and 1 X 1017 elm2 with the
A radial component will causeimage shift as stated earlier. higher values prevailing during afternoons and early evenings.
For a reference in this discussion, a stationary target will show Above equatorial regions and at high latitudes, the TCEC is
a radial velocity component u: at an angle 8 from broadside typically lo'* elm2. During magnetic storms TCEC values of
direction given by l O I 9 elm2 have been measured [ 301. With a TCEC as high as
1019 e/m2 and a radar frequency above 1000 MHz, calcula-
u:=vsine
tions show that Faraday rotation of a linearly polarized signal
where u is the radar platform velocity. Conventional SAR sig- and the amount of dispersion across about a 5-percent band-
nal processing will place the image of this stationary target at width are both negligible.
0 = 0' where the Doppler frequency is zero. If the target is Amplitude and phase scintillations have been observed on
now considered to be moving with a velocity ur, there will be a signals traversing an inhomogeneous ionosphere [ 3 11-[33].
TOMIYASU: SYNTHETIC-APERTURE 511
Phase perturbations caused by ionospheric irregularities have est and this is now discussed. In a previous section on ambi-
been reported on a communication link at frequencies of 162 guities the following equation was given applicable to a broad-
and 324 MHz from a1 100-km-altitude satellite beacon to side viewing geometry:
ground [ 341. Experiments conducted during traveling iono-
spheric disturbances show up to 3-percent variations in TCEC
[ 351. In other experiments the sizes of ionospheric granular-
ity cells have been estimated to be as small as 150m [36] or
smaller [37]. If these values of granularity are realistic, SAR where T is the transmitted pulse length.
performance canbe degraded. While both amplitude and By assuming Rf - R, = W g sin & and a negligibly small value
phase scintillations can affect SAR imagery, it is likely that of T relative to ( R f - R,)/c
phase scintillations will be more detrimental than amplitude
scintillation.
The phase granularity can be calculated from time-delay
formulations given by Burns and Fremouw [38]. Thetwo- where 'W is the ground swath width and & is the incidence
way excess phase delay is derived angle.
A 4 = 1.68 X 10-6 (TCEC)/f rad The desired ground-mapping rate is the product of radar
platform velocity or radar-beam footprint speed u and the
where f is the radar frequency in hertz. ground swath width W,. Thus, the areal mapping coverage rate
The phase granularity M#caused by fractional ionospheric u W, is given by
granularity (GR) is M@= 1.68 X (TCEC)(GR)/f. If
TCEC = 2 X lo", G R = 0.03, f = 3000 MHz, then AA@=
3.36 rad or 0.54 wavelengths. To achieve an azimuth resolu-
tion of 15 m, an integration time of about 0.38 s, and a syn-
or
thetic aperture length of about 2.83 km is required. The toler-
able number of granular cells and the phase variation across
each granular cell are governed by the integrated sidelobe level
of the processed image. If ionospheric granularity cells are as
small as 150 m, a tolerable phase variation across each cell is The areal mapping rate can be increased by degrading azimuth
less than 1/20 wavelength which in turn specifies the tolerable resolution. This results from the minimum antenna-area con-
TCEC granularity. The foregoing calculation of 0.54 wave- straint that a longer radar antenna (larger 6,) results in a
length phase granularity, if indeed it occurs, will result in a shorterantenna height which broadens the elevation beam-
significant degradation in image quality. width and hence increases the ground swath width Wg. The
Ionospheric density variations cannot be reliably predicted mapping rate is inversely proportional to the sine of the in-
but statistical magnitudes have been investigated. Phase fluc- cidence angle. As the incidence angle approaches normal to
tuations on the order of A/4 rad of the RF cycle are deemed the surface, sin & becomes smaller and the areal mapping rate
undesirable. For a satellite-borne L-band SAR, imagery over increases due to an increase in Wg for a given elevation beam-
Alaskan territories may be seriously degraded a fair fraction of width of the radar antenna. Under theoretical conditions the
the time [39]. At midlatitude regions, it is probable that on PRF ratio may approach unityfor the maximum mapping
the average, ionospheric granularity will not affect L-band rate, however, considering practical antenna patterns and SAR
imagery of the ocean surface. operational parameters, the PRF ratio should be nearer 0.5.
The radar beam propagation path between radar and target Note that the mapping rate equation is independent of radar
during the integration time may be subject to variations. For altitude and target range because itwasassumed that T <<
an airborne SAR, inhomogeneities in the troposphere may be a (Wg/c) sin &. At low altitudesthis assumption may not be
problem [401, [411. For a satellite-borne SAR, inhomogene- valid. While the PRF ratio may not vary much with altitude,
ities in both the troposphere and the ionosphere may pose the individual values of PRFb, and PRFhig do vary with
problems. For a relatively coarse azimuth resolution, the in- altitude.
tegration time is relatively short, and variations in the electro- The mapping rate based on ambiguity limits is independent
magnetic wave path may be negligible. The presence of rain of range resolution 6 , since 6, is dependent on the instantan-
[42] can cause attenuation, and hence loss of signal, and scat- eous RF bandwidth of the SAR electronics and not on geom
ter the transmitted pulse whichcan contribute to noise and etry. There is an exception to this; if high resolution 6,
possibly range ambiguity. is obtained by a long duration linear FM swept transmitted
Phase errors may also be introduced by instabilities in the pulse, then the general equation should be used.
SAR electronics, e.g., due to oscillator drift or jitterin the tim- The areal mapping rate given here is that constrained by
ing of the transmitted pulses. Phase jitter in excess of n/8 rad geometry and temporal factors, and it is proportional to azi-
of the RFcycle is undesirable in most applications. muth resolution. Other factors which affect mapping rate are
signal-to-noise ratio, probability of detection, false alarm rate,
VI. MAPPING RATE etc.
The paper so far has covered the principles and design COD
straints of the synthetic aperture radar as well as the signal VII. SIGNAL-TO-NOISE
RATIO
processing techniques for generating two-dimensional radar im- The generation of highquality two dimensional radar images
ages. The mapping or coverage rate of the radar based on by a SAR requires a sufficiently high signal-tenoise ratio
geometrical constraints imposed by ambiguity limits [14], (SNR). Inthis section the SNR equation is derived from
[ 161 and not by radar signal-to-noise is of considerable inter- fundamental radarprinciples.
The basic pulsed-radar equation that gives the SNR is [ 5 ] The dwell time TD on a targetis governed by the azimuth reso-
lution 6,, and hence, it is related to synthetic aperture length
S .Pt GtArW L,=vTD. T ~ U S
(7)
N= (4n)*R 4 k T p B L , TD = RX/(2VS,). (11)
where By combining (10) and (1 1)
transmitted peak power s P,A:q26ruo
transmitter-antenna gain
receiving-antenna gain
N = 8nR3 kTrRFU A La '
antenna efficiency This SNR equation is given by C u t r o ~[ 51. The SNR im-
radar cross section proves with degradation in range resolution, i.e., with increase
slant range in a,, since the RF bandwidth decreases. The SNR is indepen-
Boltzmann's constant dent of azimuth resolution 6 , since ,6 is a consequence of
absolute receiver temperature the amount of signal integration time T o . The SNR decreases
relative-noise figure with the radar wavelength X, platform velocity u, and cube of
receiver-noise bandwidth the range ( R 3 ) .
total system loss. For target detection, two additional factors need to be con-
To achieve fme range resolution it is necessary to use trans- sidered, viz.
probability of detection and false alarm rate. In
mitter pulses of short duration which in turn requires high many respects the received signal resembles noise in character
peak power for a given S N R This peak power requirement so that the radar systemis designed to assure detecting the tar-
can be reduced by the use of frequencydispersive, linear FM get in the presence of noise with a high degree of probability,
such as 95 percent, Furthermore, noise characteristically con-
sweep,and pulse-compression techniques.Thepeakpower
tains spikes in its spectra so that the radar system is designed
can be reduced by the ratio of q/rCwhere ri is the initial un-
compressed puke length and rc is the compressed pulse length. to assure that noise spikes are not t o be mistaken as real tar-
gets no more often than a given rate, such as 1 pulse in 10'
In a conventional SAR the boresight of the antenna beam is
pulses. Detectionprobability and false alarm rateare dis-
perpendicular to the radar platform velocity vector. As men-
cussed in the literature [ 4 3 ] .
tioned above, the azimuthal resolution for the focused case in
the limit is equal to one-half the physical lengthof the antenna WII. SIMPLIFIED BLOCK DIAGRAM
OF A SYNTHETIC
in the flight vector direction. In this geometry the target is APERTURE RADAR
illuminated for a time TD given by
A SAR is a phasecoherent sensor that repetitively transmits
high-power pulses and detects the return signals. See Fig. 18.
These signals are processed coherently to produce two-dimen-
where sional radar images.
The typical SAR transmitter is designed to overcome limita-
R slant range tions of peak power in components and to satisfy stringent
OR radar antenna azimuth beamwidth azimuth and range resolution requirements. High resolution in
u radarplatform velocity. azimuth requires stringent phase stabilities frompulse-to-pulse
and over the integration time. High range resolution requires
In a coherent radar system where azimuth resolution isderived
wide RF bandwidths.Tomeet the signal-tmoise ratio and
from a synthesized antenna, there is an SNR advantage due to
target detection requirements, a high average radiated power
pulse integration. The SNR improvement factor for the SAR
can be obtained by a high transmit pulse duty cycle. These
is
requirementson the transmitter can be satisfied by trans-
Ti forming short wide-band pulses into long pulses with the same
Improvement Factor = -(PRF) TD (8) swept bandwidth utilizing afrequency dispersive delay line
TC
[ 4 4 1 . Alternately,electroniccircuits using a voltage con-
where PRF is the pulse repetition frequency and TD is the tar- tolledoscillator can also provide the desired transmit pulse
get illumination time. [451-[471. The output from the high power amplifier passes
By combining (7) and (8) the following equationis obtained: through a circulator and is radiated by the radar antenna. The
received signal passes through the same circulator, is amplified
and pulse compressed. The pulse compression circuit can use a
frequency dispersive delayline which convertsa wideband
linearly swept FM long pulse into a short pulsesignal with
The product Ptri PRF is the average power transmitted Pave. same bandwidth. The phase of the short pulse is measured by
For an optimally designed receiver B rc = 1, i.e., the matched- the phase coherentdetector, and theresultant signal is de-
fiter case. The gain Gt of the antenna is given by G t = 4nArq/ livered to thesignal processor.
Xz. The radar cross section u of a resolutioncell is u = 6,6,u0 The SAR is mounted on a platform moving at a constant
where 6 , and 6 , are azimuth and range resolutions respec- velocity. The PRF must be sufficiently high t o avoid azimuth
tively and uo is the normalized radar cross section. With these ambiguity. This criterion requires that the radar platform dis-
substitutions, (9) can be rewritten as placement cannot exceed onehalf the antenna size between
successive transmit pulses. This geometrical constraint on the
pulse-to-pulse displacement of the antenna beam is indicated
by dashed lines in Fig. 18.
BEAMS FROM
SUCCESSNE
RADAR
PLATFORM
VELOCITY
SHORT WLSE
STABLE WLSE
OSCILLATOR EXPANSION
I
CUERENT PULSE LOW NOISE
D
EE
lm COMPRESSK)EI AMPLIFIER
To SIGNAL PRocEssoR
Fig. 18. Simplified block diagram of SAR.
Ina SAR,phase stability is exceedinglyimportant.The meter to be bornebya satellite is being built to perform
prime oscillator which provides the signal for the transmitter radar cross section measurements of the ocean surface from
as well as the reference for the receiver must be very stable. whichwindspeed and wind direction can be inferred on a
The timing of the transmit pulses must be very precise with re- global basis [ 571.
spect to the prime oscillator. If the radar platform velocity is In contrast,themeasurementorobservation of oceanic
not constant, the deviations must be measured and this data waves by S A R relies upon a different characterization of the
used to compensate either the incoming signal or passed on to oceanic surface. Thus the independent patch of sea being con-
the signal processor as a correction [ 231 , [ 241, [ 481. sidered has a size on theorder of meters insteadof kilometers,
and the presence of wave motion is vitally important to the
IX RADAR IMAGEOF OCEAN WAVES phase history of the return signaLAt presentthere is rela-
The preceding discussion dealt with two-dimensional radar tively little known about .the radar signal response of a small
images of isolated targets. Inthis section, radar images of patch of dynamic sea with dimensions equal to theSAR reso-
ocean waves which are dynamic and not usually moving uni- lution cell size, yet the information required by a SAR are
formly are discussed. The formation of oceanic waves due to radar cross section (amplitude), phase, phase rate (Doppler),
wind, their physical characteristics, electromagnetic wave scat- range, and range rate (radial velocity) for each small oceanic
tering behavior, and signal response to a SAR, are all complex resolution cell of sea illuminated by the radar antenna beam.
and not adequatelyunderstood. Much workhasbeen done Factors which influence the oceanic surface are wind speed
and reported on the problem, and more work is required. Ex- history, wind direction history, fetch distance, depth of water,
amples of SAR images of ocean waves are shown in Fig. 19. amount of pollution [ 581, and others. The ocean surface in-
These L-band images were reported by Brown et aL, and good cludes smallcapillaries,gravitywaves,swell, orbital motion,
correlation has been found with visual observations and optical wave speed, capillary speed, wave slope, wave direction, spec-
photographs [491. The bright line across the top of each of ular surface area, specular surface curvature, etc. Orbital mo-
the four 30-km-long strip photos is the radar subtrack. The tion [ 5 9 ] , [60] has a significant effect on SAR images. For
measurements were taken over theCentralAtlantic Ocean, each of these surface descriptors, the average or median mag-
and the airborne radar was flown in a large square box pattern nitude is desired as well as spread of values and distribution.
to view the same area of ocean surface from four different The ocean wave velocity vector direction relative to radar plat-
headings. The data wasprocessed to achieve a 15-mresolu- form velocity vector and antenna beam direction influences
tion. The waves observed have 200-m wavelengths. It is noted the radar response. The radar signal response appearsin terms
that the directions of the images of the wave “crests” rotate of signal amplitude, phase, Doppler, timedelay, etc. The signal-
by about 90” between successive image film strips. Other ex- integration time periodis on the order of a second.
amples of SAR images havebeen reported [ SO]-[ 541. Ocean-wave motion relative to the radar beamcanbere-
The oceanic scattering of conventional (Le., non-SAR) radar solved intothree velocity components, viz. satellite along-
signals has usually been reportedin terms of integrated charao track, satellite cross-track cross-radial, and satellite cross-track
teristics of the signal return [ 551, [ 561. The oceanic patch radial. An along-track componentmay cause image defocusing.
has been typically on the order of kilometers to tens of kilo- A cross-trackcross-radial component has no effect on the
meters, and the size of the area selected to be sufficiently large radar. A cross-track radial component causes a Doppler fre-
so that the normalized radar cross section will not change if a quency shift in the radarreturn signal, andthe processed
still largerareawere illuminated. The ocean surface “rough- image may shift in the track direction.
ness”, which is related to the radar cross section, or scattering The spatial-resolution cell area is the product of 6,6,, and
coefficient increases with wind speed and varies with bearing within this area numerous independent radar-scattering points
withthe highest and lowestcross sections in the upwind may physically exist. The radar, however, is insensitive to this
and crosswind directions, respectively. The measurements large number since the smallestresolvablecell is 6,6,. Be-
are insensitive to wave motion per se. A microwave scatter- cause of this limitation, the radarwill assign to each 6,6, cell
Fig. 19. SAR images of ocean waves. (Courtesy of Walter E. Brown, Jr., Jet Propulsion Laboratory.)
a single integrated value of phase and amplitude to the scat- of thereflectedradar signal during the integration time.
tered signal, and these are the input data to the SARsignal Furthermore, this configuration violates the SAR geometrical
processor. In the processor it is assumed that the scattered constraint mentioned inthe Introduction.
phase and amplitude of each resolvable cell will not change The entire radar antenna beam will illuminate perhaps thou-
during the integration time of about one second. The ocean sands of 6,6, resolution cells ina scene. Theradar data
surface decorrelation timehas been reported to be in the order from all of the cells are accumulated from pulse to pulse, and
of 0.01 0 s [ 61I , but apparently the amountof decorrelation is after collecting the data for the total integration time period,
not very significant since radar imageshave been produced. signal processing can be initiated. A signal processor based on
Further, if the signals from all cells in a scene change essen- optical techniques assumes that the scene comprising numer-
tially inunison, good images will be processed. The signal ous resolution cells can be treated uniformly. Earlier, it was
response from each 6, cell will depend on incidence angle, stated that a small component of target radial velocity will
heading, radar wavelength, RF bandwidth,polarization,etc. cause a small cross-range shift of the image position.If all
Large specular surfaces that are flat or nearly so, whose nor- resolution cells in the scene were to move radially in unison,
mals areorientedtowardthe SAR, donotproducestrong there would be no concern. If, on the other hand, the radial
images [ 621 due to rapid spatial migration of the phase center velocities of all cells were slightly different from each other,
there may be considerable image smear which cannot be com- TABLE I1

FREQUESCY DEPENDENCE (FOR AZIMUTH
A GIVES RESOLUTIOS)
pensated.In theother direction, if the sceneweremoving
parallel to the radar platform velocity vector and all cells were
Favor High Favor Low
moving together, the scenewould be initially defocusedMicrowave
Microwave but Factor
this can be compensated. However, if the cellshaveslightly Frequency
Frequency
different along-track velocities, there may be considerable dis-
tortion which cannot be compensated. High range resolution smaJler
6
, = c/(2Af) % bandwidth
Other signal processing problems may be caused by accelera-
tion and high component velocities of the ocean surface cells. High azimuth resolution greater antenna
Radial acceleration may cause azimuth and range defocusing, surface tolerance
6az = LR/2
andan along-track acceleration may cause azimuth walk.A Integration time, TD shorter TD
high radial velocity will cause range walk. TD = ~ 0 / ( 2 u % 2 )
Ocean wave motion may be described, perhaps simplistically, RaQr antenna area,AR smaller AR
in terms of a physical displacement of gravity waves with c a p AR a h(ambiguity limited)
illaries and orbital motion of the ocean surface. Elachi et al. Depth of focus, DOF greater depth
[ 5 1] suggest that in SAR images of the ocean surface, “three
DOF = 8&/k
sources of cross section modulation seem to play an important
role: change of the local tilt angle, variation of the surface Range curvature, RC less curvature
roughness, and the waves’ orbital velocity.” They further state RC a k 2 / 6 t Z
thatnot all of their measurements supportthis suggestion. Along-track velocity error more tolerant more sensitive
Larson et al. [ 531 suggest that wave height might be inferred A U a~ &/A
from image depth of focus which depends on radial accelera- &
d
ilacceleration,R
a more tolerant
tion of the wave. It is observed that of the wave images re- R
,a &/h
ported by Larson e f al. [ 531 most wave crests are oriented es- Signal-to-noise ratio slightly better
sentially parallel to the aircraft velocity vector. The effects of Transmitter efficiency better
random phase changes havebeendiscussed by Elachi et aL Receiver noise temperature better
[ 6 3 ] . A completeunderstanding of these mechanisms and
Ionospheric granularity much less effect
their effecton image formation does not appear to be available.
From the analyses presented in this paperit appears that the
resolution in the azimuth direction is limited in part to the
spread of the along-track component of the wave velocity. An airborne simultaneous X- and L-band dual polarization
An examination of (5) indicates that a shorter wavelength synthetic aperture radar has been developed by ERIM [ 641.
radar is less sensitive to along-track velocity spread. A radial Comparative radar images of ocean surfaces were taken at the
velocity causes image shift in the cross-radial (azimuthal) direc- Marineland Test Site off the coast of Florida on December 15,
tion, and a spread in radial velocities within a scene will cause 1975 [ 6 5 ] .
smearing in the azimuthal direction. For a radar system with
,6 = 15 m, a maximum tolerable azimuthal smear Ax may be XI. CONCLUSIONS
5 m. Thus, from (6), Ax = 5 m = RAq(cos /3)/u. If R = 1O6 m, A SAR, can produce high resolution twedimensional images
u = 7.6 X lo3 m/s, and /3 = 6S0, the tolerable spread in radial of radar-mapped areas. The radar is carried by a cgnstant ve-
velocity Au, = 0.09m/s. This seems to be a very stringent locity moving platform such as an aircraft or satellite. The an-
requirement to be expected from oceanic waves. tenna beam is typically at right angles to the velocity vector.
It should be noted that if stationary targets such as shore- High resolution in range is attained by the use of wideband
line, towers, buildings, etc., are included in the same scene as transmitted pulses and high resolution in cross range (azimuth)
oceanic waves, the best focus conditionsfor radar images of the is achieved by signal processing the coherent phase history of
oceanic waves may cause the stationary targets to defocus. ‘the signals reflected by the targets, collected for the integra-
There is a great deal of interest in obtaining the directional tion time period. Range and azimuth ambiguities restrict the
spectra of oceanic waves. A SAR appears to yield the spatial pulse-repetition frequency to certain bounds. High quality
features [ 4 9 ] , and perhaps wave amplitude can be inferred as images require accurate knowledge of the range histories to
well. An L-band SAR is planned for theNASA SEASAT satel- the targets and residual range uncertainties result in image
lite scheduled to be launched in May 1978 at an orbit altitude degradation.
of about 800 km [491. SARimages of ocean waveshavebeen reported and these
correlate well withopticalphotographsand visualobserva-
X. RADARFREQUENCY DEPENDENCE tions. Despite these correlations, the relationship between
The choice of the frequency of a synthetic aperture radard e SAR images and the dynamic ocean surface is not well under-
pends on many factors, some of which favor high and some stood. Detailed radar signal response of a small patch of sea
low microwave frequencies. These are listed qualitatively in with dimensions of range and azimuth resolutions is required
Table 11. It is assumed that the resolution is fixed. X-band in terms of reflected amplitude, Doppler shift, Doppler spread,
and L-band are regarded as approximate high andlow fre- range rate, etc., as functions of incidence angle, heading, radar
quencyboundaries, respectively. In general, the higher fre- wavelength, RF bandwidth,polarization, etc. A more corn
quency shows more advantages than disadvantages, however, plete characterization of the ocean surface in terms of those
this must be compared with hardware advantages of the lower physical parameters remains to be done. A SAR does offer a
frequency.Anotherconsideration is targetreflection as a possibility of measuring the directional spectra of oceanic
function of radar frequency. waves.
NOMENCLATURE absolute receiver temperature

A spherical arc total columnar electron content
Ar receiving antenna area radar platform velocity
AR radar antennaarea earth equatorial rotationalvelocity
A REC received signal amplitude along-track velocity
AREF reference signal amplitude radial velocity
B receiver noise bandwidth target velocity
C light velocity ground swath width
D lens diameter radar platform position
DPP pulse-to-pulse displacement of radar antenna ground arc length
DOF depth of field cross-track position
elm2 electrons per square meter distance
EAF normalized array factor
EEP normalized element pattern
spherical angle, target angle
ELA normalized linear array pattern
ascending node angle
E, normalized synthetic array pattern
azimuth (cross range) resolution, linear
E2 a normalized two-way array factor
normalized one-way element pattern range resolution, linear
El e orbit eccentricity
-e
El normalized two-way element pattern
total complex signal antenna efficiency, cross cone angle
ER ( t )
complex reflected signal from a scatterer angle, cone angle
Ei(t)
frequency azimuth beamwidth
f elevation beamwidth
fD Doppler frequency
FM frequency modulation one-way radar antenna beamwidth
GR granularity one-way 3 d B beamwidth
transmitter antenna gain two-way 3 d B beamwidth
Gr wavelength
H satellite altitude
radar cross section
HR radar antennaheight
Hz Hertz normalized radar cross section
pulse length
i orbit inclination angle
compressed pulse length
k . Boltzmann’s constant; fraction
initial uncompressed pulse length
km kilometer
phase
L antenna length
incidence angle
LR radar antenna length
satellite yaw angle
Ls total system loss
Lsa aperture length (synthetic aperture)
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
m meter
MHz megahertz The author wishes to thank M. Berkowitz, Manager of Corn
n number of unknowns munication
and Navigation
Engineering, General Electric
N noise power; number of array elements Space Division, for carefully reviewing the manuscript m d
- making numerous helpful comments.
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PROCEEDINGS OF THE IEEE, VOL. 66, NO.

5, MAY 1978 563

Tutorial Review of Synthetic-Aperture Radar

Abrrmct-A synthetic rperture td.t ( S A R ) an produce high-

0018-9219/78/0500-OS63$00.75 O 1978 IEEE

eccentricity, imaging of moving targets, various sources of er-

11. THE SYNTHETIC APERTURE

SLANT PLANE VIEW SLANT PLANE VIEW

Fig. 3. Close target separability. L RADAR

Fig. 4. Radar-target geometry.

The azimuth resolutioncan be written as

The azimuth beamwidth 0, and L,, are related by RADAR

A time rate of change in phase causes a frequency shift, and (b)

111. AMBIGUITIES B. Azimuth Ambiguity-2n Radian shift Between Pulses

SLANT PLANE VIEW SLANT W E VIEW

A 2n-rad two-way phase shift at beam edge is equivalent to

Thus the PRF has to be sufficiently high to exceed the maxi-

differential one-way range of f h/2 from a distant target occurs

The Doppler frequency is u/Dpp and this is also PRF.

F. Minimum Antenna Area

The following quantities are now defined: 1) ground swath

The antenna area is related to the ratio PRFwg/PRF1,,, and

Fig. 10. Pulsed SAR and signal Tim.

OUADRATIC PHASE HISTORY

dA Ro where dA is azimuth beamwidth. A second target B is 2 a RADIANS

@= (Ut')2 The signal amplitude and phase history is recorded 0% film

2hR; D. Optical Processing

IMAGE FILM ARE

and city is considered. A nominal value can be obtained for an air-

Fig. 18. Simplified block diagram of SAR.

there may be considerable image smear which cannot be com- TABLE I1

NOMENCLATURE absolute receiver temperature

11, pp. 326-337, May 1975. 24, 1977, p. 186.

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