Replacing Missing Data Between Airborne SAR Coherent Image Pairs

Abstract

For synthetic aperture radar systems, missing data samples can cause severe image distortion. When multiple, coherent data collections exist and the missing data samples do not overlap between collections, there exists the possibility of replacing data samples between collections. For airborne radar, the known and unknown motions of the aircraft prevent direct data sample replacement to repair image features. This paper presents a method to calculate the necessary phase corrections to enable data sample replacement using only the collected radar data.