Mitigation of the SAR Image Radiometric Loss Associated with the SCORE DBF in Presence of Terrain Height Variations

Abstract:
Scan-on-receive (SCORE) is a key digital beamforming (DBF) technique for future high-resolution wide-swath synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems. Compared to a conventional approach, it allows to improve the SAR imaging performance. Nevertheless, it also exposes the system to new errors. In particular, the mutual effect of terrain height variations and pulse duration should be carefully considered, in view of the demanding requirements on the radiometric quality of future SAR images. This paper investigates possible strategies to mitigate the SAR image radiometric loss associated with the SCORE DBF in presence of topographic variations, with minimum impact on the SAR system complexity.