Data processing aspects of synthetic aperture radar

Abstract

An introduction to the basic features of SAR and the problems of real-time synthetic aperture radar processing is presented. The SAR processing functions are described as well as some computational rates which are required for range and azimuth compression. A hardware pipeline concept consisting of standardised digital processing modules (e.g. two-dimensional storage unit, FIR filter, fast Fourier transformation) is introduced which is able to handle SAR data in real time. Further applications of this concept within the areas of image postprocessing and image analysis are also discussed. Additionally, the pipeline concept is compared with standard array processor solutions.