Digital Processing Techniques for Satellite-Borne Synthetic-Aperture Radars

Abstract

A general, conceptual view of the digital processing of data acquired from a satellite-borne SAR has been presented. Three possible digital processors for the production of images using data from satellite-borne synthetic-aperture radars have been described. The first system, which is the least complicated, will produce focussed images that require correction of geometric distortions. However, the relative simplicity of the required digital hardware makes the first system the easiest and least costly to implement. Both the second and third systems will produce focussed, undistorted images at the expense of additional hardware. The choice between these last two systems will depend on the total cost of the hardware elements required for each of the implementations. The main factor will be the cost of the three large (mega-word) “corner-turning” (or transposing) digital memories required for the second implementation, compared to the cost of two such memories plus the cost of the large random-access memory required for shearing the data in the third implementation. The problems of implementing such digital processors is the subject of current research.