SAR Imaging System Research Articles

An Embedded-GPU-Based Scheme for Real-Time Imaging Processing of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Borne Video Synthetic Aperture Radar

The UAV-borne video SAR (ViSAR) imaging system requires miniaturization, low power consumption, high frame rates, and high-resolution real-time imaging. In order to satisfy the requirements of real-time imaging processing for the UAV-borne ViSAR under limited memory and parallel computing resources, this paper proposes a method of embedded GPU-based real-time imaging processing for the UAV-borne ViSAR. Based on a parallel programming model of the compute unified device architecture (CUDA), this paper designed a parallel computing method for range-Doppler (RD) and map drift (MD) algorithms. By utilizing the advantages of the embedded GPU characterized with parallel computing, we improved the processing speed of real-time ViSAR imaging. This paper also adopted a unified memory management method, which greatly reduces data replication and communication latency between the CPU and the GPU. The data processing of 2048 × 2048 points took only 1.215 s on the Jetson AGX Orin platform to form a nine-consecutive-frame image with a resolution of 0.15 m, with each frame taking only 0.135 s, enabling real-time imaging at a high frame rate of 5 Hz. In actual testing, continuous mapping can be achieved without losing the scenes, intuitively obtaining the dynamic observation effects of the area. The processing results of the measured data have verified the reliability and effectiveness of the proposed scheme, satisfying the processing requirements for real-time ViSAR imaging.

Structural displacement monitoring using ground-based synthetic aperture radar

This study develops a ground-based synthetic aperture radar (GBSAR) imaging system and interferometric processing framework for structural health monitoring (SHM). Radar remote sensing for displacement monitoring plays a vital role in SHM. Radar sensors and, more specifically, GBSAR systems have gained more attention in recent studies due to their capability to overcome the limitations of other contact or non-contact SHM sensors. This paper proposes a three-dimensional SAR imaging system and advanced signal processing scheme to extract continuous (fast) displacement components, such as structural vibrations, and discontinuous (slow) displacements, such as subsidence or uplift, using SAR time-series datasets. Using controlled experiments, this study shows that the developed GBSAR can monitor sub-millimeter displacements with high spatial resolution and 0.02 mm precision in the LOS direction. Moreover, several simulations are carried out to evaluate the proposed displacement monitoring algorithms. Accordingly, the proposed continuous monitoring framework can measure fast LOS displacements with better than 0.03 mm precision by reducing the effects of radar movement, clutters, and disturbances. Also, evaluations on a simulated monitoring scene at 20 m from the GBSAR’s LOS show that the proposed discontinuous displacement monitoring algorithm can estimate 3D displacement vectors with sub-millimeter precision. The results show that the developed GBSAR can be used for repeat-pass LOS displacement monitoring and the proposed algorithms demonstrate high potential for measuring continuous sub-second LOS displacements and long-term 3D displacement vectors.

SAR Altimetry Data as a New Source for Swell Monitoring

AbstractThis article shows the first spectral analysis of fully‐focused Synthetic Aperture Radar (FFSAR) altimetry data with the objective of studying backscatter modulations caused by swells. Swell waves distort the backscatter in altimetry radargrams by means of velocity and range bunching. These swell signatures are visible in the tail of the waveform. By locally normalizing the backscatter and projecting the waveforms on an along‐/cross‐track grid, satellite altimetry can be exploited to retrieve swell information. The analysis of FFSAR spectra is supported by buoy‐derived swell‐wave spectra of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration network. Using cases with varying wave characteristics, we discuss the altimetry‐derived spectra and relate them to what is known from side‐looking SAR imaging systems. Besides having a vast amount of additional data for swell‐wave analysis, altimeter data can also help us to better understand the side‐looking SAR spectra.

A Review of Synthetic-Aperture Radar Image Formation Algorithms and Implementations: A Computational Perspective

Designing synthetic-aperture radar image formation systems can be challenging due to the numerous options of algorithms and devices that can be used. There are many SAR image formation algorithms, such as backprojection, matched-filter, polar format, Range–Doppler and chirp scaling algorithms. Each algorithm presents its own advantages and disadvantages considering efficiency and image quality; thus, we aim to introduce some of the most common SAR image formation algorithms and compare them based on these two aspects. Depending on the requisites of each individual system and implementation, there are many device options to choose from, for instance, FPGAs, GPUs, CPUs, many-core CPUs, and microcontrollers. We present a review of the state of the art of SAR imaging systems implementations. We also compare such implementations in terms of power consumption, execution time, and image quality for the different algorithms used.

A Two-Stage Echo Separation Scheme for Spaceborne MIMO-HWRS SAR System

Multiple-input and multiple-output synthetic aperture radar (MIMO SAR) is a very potential technique for high-resolution and wide-width (HRWS) imaging due to the fact that it can provide more degrees of freedom. In this paper, an innovative MIMO-HRWS SAR imaging system is introduced with segmented phase coding (SPC) waveforms. However, it is well known that the echo separation issue is the most technical challenge for MIMO SAR. It has shown that the separation of orthogonal echoes from cross-correlation interference can be achieved by scan-on-receive (SCORE). However, this method often requires large computing resources on board, especially for null-steering process. For this, we propose a two-stage spaceborne-ground echo separation scheme. This scheme is mainly divided into two-steps: the first step is a real-time SCORE-beamforming process on board to reduce the downlink data volume, and the second step is a bandpass-null steering process to suppress the interfering echoes on the ground. Thus, this scheme allows for the low computing resources on board and sufficient suppression of the interference simultaneously. Following this scheme, the MIMO-HRWS SAR system enables its number of equivalent phase centers nearly double that of the azimuth multichannel SAR system, thus higher-resolution and wider-swath imaging. Finally, detailed simulation experiments for the MIMO-HRWS SAR imaging system are performed to verify the practicability and feasibility of the proposed scheme.

A Novel Compressive Sensing-Based Multichannel HRWS SAR Imaging Technique for Moving Targets

When high-resolution wide-swath (HRWS) multichannel synthetic aperture radar (MC-SAR) system is used for ocean observation, vast amount of redundant data is generated, significantly limiting its applications. Though compressive sensing (CS)-based method has been applied to the traditional single-channel or dual-channel SAR imaging system, it is no longer applicable for MC-SAR due to the existence of channel error when using the space-time equivalent sampling technique for azimuth signal reconstruction. By analyzing such periodic channel error, i.e., frequency-dependence phase mismatch (FD-PM), in this article, a novel dictionary is constructed for CS-based HRWS MC-SAR imaging after an improved range cell migration correction method is applied. As a result, a novel CS imaging mode is proposed for the ocean moving target based on the sparsity of the target scattering centers, by which the amount of data in MC-SAR can be reduced by sampling below the Nyquist sampling rate and the swath width can be further increased. Experimental results show that the proposed method clearly eliminates the azimuth defocus and blur caused by low sampling rate and FD-PM, and significantly reduces the amount of data to about one-third when compared to sampling at the Nyquist rate.

A Novel Multi-Angle SAR Imaging System and Method Based on an Ultrahigh Speed Platform.

Considering the difficulty of pulse repetition frequency (PRF) design in multi-angle SAR when using ultra-high speed platforms, a multi-angle SAR imaging system in a unified coordinate system is proposed. The digital multi-beamforming is used in the system and multi-angle SAR data can be obtained in one flight. Therefore, the system improves the efficiency of data recording. An improved range migration algorithm (RMA) is used for data processing, and imaging is made in a unified imaging coordinate system. The resolution of different view images is the same, and there is a fixed delay between the images. On this basis, the SAR image fusion is performed after image matching. The results of simulation and measured data confirm the effectiveness of the system and the method.

Design and implementation of a multi-channel space-borne SAR imaging system on Vivado HLS

Design and implementation of a multi-channel space-borne SAR imaging system on Vivado HLS

Experimental research on vehicle‐borne SAR imaging with THz radar

AbstractVehicle‐borne SAR is one of the most important applications of radar systems, playing a more and more major role in civilian and military fields. Vehicle‐borne SAR imaging experiments with a 0.22‐THz radar system are introduced in this letter and the imaging processing based on practical problems is presented. High quality imaging results are obtained after a series of processing such as optimum parameters estimation, harmonic interference correction and vibration compensation. Finally, analyses of the imaging results verify the validity of the imaging processing, which provide support to the practical application of terahertz vehicle‐borne SAR imaging systems.

Analytical modelling and software implementation of synthetic aperture radars

ABSTRACTSynthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging systems are a complement to passive remote sensing. However, the process of image formation is so complex that the final image in the system is formed only after three basic steps: raw data acquisition, forming the signal and the image space. In addition, there are various factors that are involved in the information recorded by SAR within the system and outside the system, such as radar, platform, processing algorithm, imaging region and channel. Each of these factors has been formed by many parameters and this issue adds to the complexity of the behaviour of SAR. Therefore, due to the complexity, providing a model that describes how the SAR imaging system works is highly important. In this paper, the performance of SAR in the image formation section is analytically modelled at first, and then implemented as software. Raw data acquisition is performed in CST software and the signal and image formation are performed in MATLAB software. This implementation provides many abilities, such as better interpretation of SAR images, simulating the effect of the important parameters in SAR images, etc.

Modelling and Software Implementation of SAR Imaging System Performance in Spotlight Mode

Modelling and Software Implementation of SAR Imaging System Performance in Spotlight Mode

Estimation of Flight Path Deviations for SAR Radar Installed on UAV

Abstract The paper presents a method of calculation of position deviations from a theoretical, nominally rectilinear trajectory for a SAR imaging system installed on board of UAV. The UAV on-board system consists of a radar sensor, an antenna system, a SAR processor and a navigation system. The main task of the navigation part is to determine the vector of differences between the theoretical and the measured trajectories of UAV center of gravity. The paper includes chosen results of experiments obtained during ground and flight tests.

3D OBJECT COORDINATES EXTRACTION BY RADARGRAMMETRY AND MULTI STEP IMAGE MATCHING

Abstract. Nowadays by high resolution SAR imaging systems as Radarsat-2, TerraSAR-X and COSMO-skyMed, three-dimensional terrain data extraction using SAR images is growing. InSAR and Radargrammetry are two most common approaches for removing 3D object coordinate from SAR images. Research has shown that extraction of terrain elevation data using satellite repeat pass interferometry SAR technique due to atmospheric factors and the lack of coherence between the images in areas with dense vegetation cover is a problematic. So the use of Radargrammetry technique can be effective. Generally height derived method by Radargrammetry consists of two stages: Images matching and space intersection. In this paper we propose a multi-stage algorithm founded on the combination of feature based and area based image matching. Then the RPCs that calculate for each images use for extracting 3D coordinate in matched points. At the end, the coordinates calculating that compare with coordinates extracted from 1 meters DEM. The results show root mean square errors for 360 points are 3.09 meters. We use a pair of spotlight TerraSAR-X images from JAM (IRAN) in this article.

MIMO Radar and Ground-Based SAR Imaging Systems: Equivalent Approaches for Remote Sensing

Currently there is an increasing interest in multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radars, because MIMO technology is able to provide a level of performance similar to that of a conventional antenna array, while also providing hardware and cost-related benefits. In this paper, we describe an upgrade of an existing ground-based synthetic aperture radar system (which is used for landslide monitoring) to a low-cost MIMO system. We also describe the associated low-cost/high-performance remote sensing benefits that this new configuration provides and present the results gathered by the new system. We conclude by outlining two configurations of the MIMO system with particular emphasis on antenna positioning, which has a key role in the overall performance.

Comparison and analysis of point target reference spectrum of FMCW synthetic aperture imaging sensor

Abstract Frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) synthetic aperture imaging sensor (SAIS) combines FMCW technology and SAIS techniques which makes a lightweight, high-resolution, and cost-effective imaging sensor. FMCW SAIS systems are going to play an important role in airborne and spaceborne earth observation fields. However, the stop-and-go approximation used in conventional pulsed SAIR (e.g., synthetic aperture radar—SAR) is no longer valid due to the long signal duration time or low wave propagation speed. To exploit the potentialities of an accurate signal model under FMCW SAIS circumstances, this article presents the relationship and remarkable differences between the analytical FMCW SAIS point target reference spectrum model and the traditional ones in pulsed SAR and Synthetic Aperture Acoustic imaging system, and validates the significance of the additional range–azimuth coupling term and range walk term in FMCW SAIS spectrum introduced by the variation of slant range during the long pulse durations, and highlight the limitations of other two spectra. Finally, the simulation experiments are carried out to compare the performance of the aforementioned spectrum formulations.

AN INNOVATIVE RADAR IMAGING SYSTEM BASED ON THE CAPABILITY OF AN UWB ARRAY TO STEER SUCCESSIVELY IN DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS

An innovative radar imaging system, based on the capability of a flxed UWB array to radiate short pulses in difierent directions along time with the principle of electronic beam steering, is presented in this paper. To demonstrate its concept, the analysis presented in this paper is based on simulation results. As function of the use of either only one antenna or several antennas in reception, two radar imaging algorithms have been developed and are detailed in this paper. These algorithms permit to obtain an image of the analyzed scene thanks to the transient beam pattern of the array used in emission. Finally, with a same analyzed scene, these algorithms have been compared with the time reversal method and the back projection algorithm, in association with a SAR imaging system. The conditions of applicability of these methods are also discussed.

3D Multi-static SAR System for Terrain Imaging Based on Indirect GPS Signals

A 3D multi-static SAR imaging system which utilises reflected GPS signals from objects on the Earth's surface is described in this paper. The principle of bistatic radar is used to detect movement of, or changes to, the imaged object. The indirect GPS signals are processed by a match filter with the aim of improving the spatial resolution of detection. The measure of spatial resolution of this imaging system is derived, and is confirmed by MATLAB simulation. Several scenarios are considered, for the visible satellite at a given receiver and object location. The scenarios for different satellites are: a) static receiver with two targets which move with the same speed; and b) moving receiver with one static target and one moving target. Simulation results show that the spatial resolution of detection depends on the relative positions of the GPS satellites, the imaged objects and the GPS receiver, as well as their respective velocities.

Ionospheric scintillations modelling by MPS and MPC phase screens methods

GPS navigation and SAR imaging systems performances depend on correct characterization of perturbations due to electromagnetic wave propagation through turbulent media such as ionosphere or troposphere. At these systems frequencies, ionospheric scintillations, which are more or less important according to geophysical conditions, must be studied as well as mean perturbations due to medium crossing. After a description of ionospheric parameters, existing scintillation models are presented. Then, MPS and MPC numerical phase screens methods developed to simulate time series representative of ionospheric scintillations are described. These methods, which are applicable whatever the temporal and geographical localizations are, evaluate scintillation parameters close to analytical theoretical ones. Several propagation conditions can be simulated such as propagation of a wide band source signal or wave propagation through bidimensional anisotropic screens.

Multifocus processing of L band synthetic aperture radar images of ocean waves obtained during the Tower Ocean Wave and Radar Dependence Experiment

As part of the Tower Ocean Wave and Radar Dependence Experiment (TOWARD) objectives, the mechanisms of SAR imaging of ocean waves are investigated using L band SAR data over the Naval Ocean Systems Center tower. This paper provides experimental evidence needed to validate the differing hypotheses. Various processing methods are investigated to generate spectra with large degrees of freedom. The results show that waves traveling in the aircraft direction are most detectable at focus settings in the range 10.0–15.0 m/s, which is consistent with the Marine Remote Sensing Experiment (MARSEN) observations reported by Jain and Shemdin (1983). Waves traveling in the direction opposite to the aircraft are most detectable at settings equal to −5.0 to −15.0 m/s. The SAR imaging system acts as a low‐pass filter with the peak of the ocean wave height spectrum occurring at higher wave numbers compared with the peak in the SAR image spectrum.

Digital stereo processing of satellite image data

Currently, space image data of the earth's surface is being primarily used with emphasis on two-dimensional information content. Three-dimensional image data acquisition is now emerging through the multi-lateral viewing capability of new spaceborne VISIBLE/INFRARED and SAR imaging systems. While visual relief perception from stereo pairs is easily achievable using low-level processed data, more advanced digital stereo processing techniques can be used as versatile tools to extract information out of three-dimensional input data. A completely automated approach will be presented for digital generation of elevation data from stereo pairs. The emphasis will be on the reliability and precision of results obtained from digital image data.