A Generalized Continuous Wave Synthetic Aperture Radar

© 2017 IEEE. Attention has been devoted to Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) for half a century. Though it is a well-proven remote sensing technique, conventional pulsed SAR has several inherent limitations. In this paper, we present a new SAR concept, called Generalized Continuous Wave SAR (GCW-SAR). By using continuous wave signaling, the GCW-SAR system achieves better performance and overcomes the limitations such as the minimum antenna area in conventional SAR. Unlike the frequency modulated continuous wave SAR (FMCW-SAR) system, the GCW-SAR image is reconstructed by correlation between the sampled raw data and the location dependent reference signals. A fast image reconstruction algorithm is also presented in the paper. The principle of GCW-SAR and the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm are validated by numerical simulation results

A Millimeter-Wave GCW-SAR Based on Deramp-on-Receive and Piecewise Constant Doppler Imaging

© 2019 IEEE. A novel generalized continuous-wave synthetic aperture radar (GCW-SAR) based on deramp-on-receive operating in millimeter-wave frequency is proposed in this article. With deramp-on-receive, the receiver sampling rate is drastically reduced, and the downsampled 1-D raw data can be obtained from the received beat signal. Further adopting piecewise constant Doppler (PCD) imaging in the digital domain, a GCW-SAR image can be easily reconstructed by using the existing frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) radar system. The effects of deramp-on-receive in PCD imaging are analyzed accordingly. The short wavelength of the millimeter-wave carrier used in the proposed GCW-SAR enables high azimuth resolution as well as a short synthetic aperture, which, in turn, significantly reduces the imaging computational complexity. Simulation and experimental results confirm the advantages of the proposed GCW-SAR

Generalized continuous wave synthetic aperture radar for high resolution and wide swath remote sensing

© 2018 IEEE. A generalized continuous wave synthetic aperture radar (GCW-SAR) concept is proposed in this paper. By using full-duplex radio frontend and continuous wave signaling, the GCW-SAR system can overcome a number of limitations inherent within the existing SAR systems and achieve high-resolution and wide-swath remote sensing with low-power signal transmission. Unlike the conventional pulsed SAR and the frequency-modulated continuous-wave SAR, the GCW-SAR reconstructs a radar image by directly correlating the received 1-D raw data after self-interference cancellation with predetermined location-dependent reference signals. A fast imaging algorithm, called the piecewise constant Doppler (PCD) algorithm, is also proposed, which produces the radar image recursively in the azimuth direction without any intermediate step, such as range compression and migration compensation, as required by conventional algorithms. By removing the stop-and-go assumption or slow-time sampling in azimuth, the PCD algorithm not only achieves better imaging quality but also allows for more flexible waveform and system designs. Analyses and simulations show that the GCW-SAR tolerates significant self-interference and works well with a large selection of various system parameters. The work presented in this paper establishes a solid theoretical foundation for next-generation imaging radars

Analog Least Mean Square Loop for Self-Interference Cancellation in Generalized Continuous Wave SAR

Generalized continuous wave synthetic aperture radar (GCW-SAR) is a promising new imaging radar system since it applies the full-duplex (FD) transmission technique to achieve continuous signaling in order to overcome several fundamental limitations of the conventional pulsed SARs. As in any FD wireless communication system, self-interference (SI) is also a key problem which can impact on the GCW-SAR system. In this paper, the analog least mean square (ALMS) loop in the radio frequency domain is adopted to cancel the SI for a GCW-SAR system with periodic chirp signaling. The average residual SI power after the ALMS loop is analyzed theoretically by a stationary analysis. It is found that the ALMS loop not only works with random signals in general FD communication systems, but also works well with the periodic signal in GCW-SAR systems. Simulation results show that over 45 dB SI cancellation can be achieved by the ALMS loop which ensures the proper operation of the GCW-SAR system

System Concepts for Bi- and Multi-Static SAR Missions

The performance and capabilities of bi- and multistatic spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) are analyzed. Such systems can be optimized for a broad range of applications like frequent monitoring, wide swath imaging, single-pass cross-track interferometry, along-track interferometry, resolution enhancement or radar tomography. Further potentials arises from digital beamforming on receive, which allows to gather additional information about the direction of the scattered radar echoes. This directional information can be used to suppress interferences, to improve geometric and radiometric resolution, or to increase the unambiguous swath width. Furthermore, a coherent combination of multiple receiver signals will allow for a suppression of azimuth ambiguities. For this, a reconstruction algorithm is derived, which enables a recovery of the unambiguous Doppler spectrum also in case of non-optimum receiver aperture displacements leading to a non-uniform sampling of the SAR signal. This algorithm has also a great potential for systems relying on the displaced phase center (DPC) technique, like the high resolution wide swath (HRWS) SAR or the split antenna approach in the TerraSAR-X and Radarsat II satellites

Theory and measure of certain image norms in SAR

The principal properties of synthetic aperture radar SAR imagery of point and distributed objects are summarized. Against this background, the response of a SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) to the moving surface of the sea is considered. Certain conclusions are drawn as to the mechanism of interaction between microwaves and the sea surface. Focus and speckle spectral tests may be used on selected SAR imagery for areas of the ocean. The fine structure of the sea imagery is sensitive to processor focus and adjustment. The ocean reflectivity mechanism must include point like scatterers of sufficient radar cross section to dominate the return from certain individual resolution elements. Both specular and diffuse scattering mechanisms are observed together, to varying degree. The effect is sea state dependent. Several experiments are proposed based on imaging theory that could assist in the investigation of reflectivity mechanisms

Analog Least Mean Square Loop for Self-Interference Cancellation in Generalized Continuous Wave SAR

© 2018 IEEE. Generalized continuous wave synthetic aperture radar (GCW-SAR) is a promising new imaging radar system since it applies the full-duplex (FD) transmission technique to achieve continuous signaling in order to overcome several fundamental limitations of the conventional pulsed SARs. As in any FD wireless communication system, self-interference (SI) is also a key problem which can impact on the GCW-SAR system. In this paper, the analog least mean square (ALMS) loop in the radio frequency domain is adopted to cancel the SI for a GCW-SAR system with periodic chirp signaling. The average residual SI power after the ALMS loop is analyzed theoretically by a stationary analysis. It is found that the ALMS loop not only works with random signals in general FD communication systems, but also works well with the periodic signal in GCW-SAR systems. Simulation results show that over 45 dB SI cancellation can be achieved by the ALMS loop which ensures the proper operation of the GCW-SAR system

Computational polarimetric microwave imaging

We propose a polarimetric microwave imaging technique that exploits recent advances in computational imaging. We utilize a frequency-diverse cavity-backed metasurface, allowing us to demonstrate high-resolution polarimetric imaging using a single transceiver and frequency sweep over the operational microwave bandwidth. The frequency-diverse metasurface imager greatly simplifies the system architecture compared with active arrays and other conventional microwave imaging approaches. We further develop the theoretical framework for computational polarimetric imaging and validate the approach experimentally using a multi-modal leaky cavity. The scalar approximation for the interaction between the radiated waves and the target---often applied in microwave computational imaging schemes---is thus extended to retrieve the susceptibility tensors, and hence providing additional information about the targets. Computational polarimetry has relevance for existing systems in the field that extract polarimetric imagery, and particular for ground observation. A growing number of short-range microwave imaging applications can also notably benefit from computational polarimetry, particularly for imaging objects that are difficult to reconstruct when assuming scalar estimations.Comment: 17 pages, 15 figure