Method for performing SAR acquisitions with enhanced azimuth resolution
AssigneeThales Alena Space Italia S.p.A. Con Unico Socio
InventorDiego Calabrese
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Abstract
The present invention concerns a method for performing SAR acquisitions, which comprises performing, in a time division fashion, SAR acquisitions of areas of a swath of earth's surface by means of a SAR system carried by an air or space platform; wherein performing SAR acquisitions in a time division fashion includes contemporaneously acquiring, in each pulse repetition interval, a plurality of areas of the swath that are separated in azimuth; and wherein the areas acquired in T successive pulse repetition intervals form an azimuth-continuous portion of said swath, T being an integer greater than one.
Claims10
A method for performing SAR acquisitions, comprising performing, in a time division fashion, SAR acquisitions of areas of a swath of earth's surface by means of a synthetic aperture radar system carried by an air or space platform;
- characterized in that performing SAR acquisitions in a time division fashion includes contemporaneously acquiring, in each pulse repetition interval, a plurality of areas of the swath that are separated in azimuth, by:
- (i) transmitting a plurality of radar signals by contemporaneously using different transmission radar beams, and receiving a plurality of backscattered radar signals by contemporaneously using different reception radar beams, wherein
- (a) the transmission radar beams are angularly separated in azimuth so as to be pointed, each, at a respective one of the areas of the swath to be contemporaneously acquired, and
- (b) the reception radar beams are angularly separated in azimuth so as to be pointed, each, at a respective one of the areas of the swath to be contemporaneously acquired;
- wherein the transmission and reception radar beams used in T successive pulse repetition intervals form an azimuth-continuous angular span, whereby the areas acquired in T successive pulse repetition intervals form an azimuth-continuous portion of the swath, T being an integer greater than one.
A method for performing SAR acquisitions, comprising performing, in a time division fashion, SAR acquisitions of areas of a swath of earth's surface by means of a synthetic aperture radar system carried by an air or space platform;
- characterized in that performing SAR acquisitions in a time division fashion includes contemporaneously acquiring, in each pulse repetition interval, a plurality of areas of the swath that are separated in azimuth, by:
- (i) transmitting one or more radar signals by using a single transmission radar beam, and receiving a plurality of backscattered radar signals by contemporaneously using different reception radar beams, wherein
- (a) the single transmission radar beam is such that to illuminate, with the transmitted radar signal(s), all the areas of the swath to be contemporaneously acquired, and
- (b) the reception radar beams are narrower than said single transmission radar beam and are angularly separated in azimuth so as to be pointed, each, at a respective one of the areas of the swath to be contemporaneously acquired;
- wherein the transmission and reception radar beams used in T successive pulse repetition intervals form an azimuth-continuous angular span, whereby the areas acquired in T successive pulse repetition intervals form an azimuth-continuous portion of the swath, T being an integer greater than one.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.