Abstract
This study improves the performance of a spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) system using an antenna mask design method and antenna pattern synthesis algorithms for an active phased array SAR system. The SAR antenna is an important component that affects the SAR system performance because it is closely related to the antenna pattern. This study proposes a method for antenna mask design that is based on several previous studies as well as the antenna pattern synthesis algorithm, which is based on quantum-behaved particle swarm optimization (QPSO) for an active phased array SAR system. The performance of the designed antenna masks and synthesized patterns demonstrate that the proposed mask design method and antenna pattern synthesis algorithm based on QPSO can be used to improve the SAR system performance for spaceborne applications.
Highlights
Active phased array antennas are used for spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) because their electronic beam steering capability without satellite maneuvering or mechanical beam pointing provides flexibility and agility
This study considered the active phased array SAR antennas of KOMPSAT-5, as shown in Figure 8, to validate the proposed design method for the mask template and the proposed pattern synthesis algorithm based on the quantumbehaved particle swarm optimization (QPSO)
The results show that the new antenna pattern synthesis technique based on the QPSO and the design method for the antenna mask template together are an appropriate method to improve the SAR system performance
Summary
Active phased array antennas are used for spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) because their electronic beam steering capability without satellite maneuvering or mechanical beam pointing provides flexibility and agility. The significant performance parameters of a SAR system include the swath width (SW), noise equivalent sigma zero (NESZ), range ambiguity-tosignal ratio (RASR), and azimuth ambiguity-to-signal ratio (AASR) These parameters have a close relationship with the SAR antenna pattern and can be improved by synthesizing an adequate SAR antenna pattern. This paper proposes a method to design an antenna mask template and uses quantum-behaved particle swarm optimization (QPSO) as the optimization algorithm for the antenna pattern synthesis. The results of the antenna pattern synthesis and the performance analysis were evaluated and validated using the design parameters of active phased array antennas for Korea Multipurpose Satellite-5 (KOMPSAT-5) [9], which was successfully launched in 2013 and is currently operating normally in orbit.
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