GeoSAR: a new radar mapping technology for tropical environments

摘要

GeoSAR is an airborne, dual-frequency Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (IFSAR) system built to deliver precision topographic and land-surface information in regions where near-permanent cloud cover, other atmospheric obscurants and large expanses of dense, inaccessible vegetation preclude the use of conventional remote sensing and mapping systems. It is currently the only IFSAR in the world to acquire single-pass interferometry simultaneously in X-band (3 cm wavelength) and P-band (85 cm wavelength) across 10-12 km wide swaths on both sides of the aircraft at the same time. Being a single-pass system, GeoSAR avoids problems of repeat-pass processing including temporal decorrelation (due to scene changes between passes), atmospheric distortion (wavelength independent), and extremely difficult motion compensation and calibration issues. Left-right look angles on each side of the aircraft combined with the data mosaicking process mitigates radar shadow and layover. Data are collected from a Gulfstream 2 jet at an altitude of 33,000 to 39,000 feet MSL along flight-lines up to 1200 km in length with a data rate of 1 GB per second.