Spotlight SAR image formation and processing algorithms

• Main Author: James Arthur Roger Balfour
• Other Authors: Tan Eng Leong
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Electrical and electronic engineering::Electronic systems::Signal processing
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/50009
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) provides technical, strategical and economical advantages in the field of monostatic radar imaging systems. Spotlight SAR in particular provides the ability to improve this technology when surveying a fixed area. This report investigates SAR operations and spotlight mode operations along with the challenges that are faced when using this mode, mainly focusing on the effects of Motion Through Resolution Cells (MTRC). There are image-formatting algorithms used to counteract the distortions that occur in spotlight SAR imaging. Various formats will be reviewed and their workings briefly explained but one particular format, Range Migration Algorithm (RMA), will be investigated in depth and will be implemented on the given raw SAR data, analysing the effects of each process in RMA on the image.