Staggered SAR: From Concept to Experiments with Real Data

Inhalt:
Staggered SAR is an innovative synthetic aperture radar (SAR) concept, where the pulse repetition interval (PRI) is continuously varied. This, together with digital beamforming (DBF) in elevation, allows high-resolution imaging of a wide continuous swath without the need for a long antenna with multiple azimuth apertures. Criteria for the design of sequences of PRIs and data processing strategies are presented, together with some system design considerations. The impact of staggered-SAR operation on image quality is furthermore assessed, using highly oversampled F-SAR airborne data and operating TerraSAR-X in staggered-SAR mode.