Imaging capabilities of an airborne X-band SAR based on the FMCW technology

Abstract

In last years the Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) technology has been playing an ever greater role in the realization of compact, lightweight and cheap Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) systems to be mounted onboard small, low altitude platforms such as airplanes, helicopters and drones. In this work, we present the imaging capabilities of the AXIS (Airborne X-band Interferometric SAR) system, which is an Italian airborne interferometric SAR system operating at X- Band and based on the FMCW technology. The system has been developed in the frame of a cooperation between a public research institute (IREA-CNR) and a private company (Elettra Microwave S.r.l.). The first flight tests of the system have been carried out at the end of April 2018 over the Salerno coastline, in the South of Italy, onboard a Cessna 172 aircraft. In this paper, we show a preview of the obtained preliminary results, comprising a description on the mission, an analysis of both the SAR images and the interferometric products.