Synthetic Aperture Radar Data Reduction for Satellites

摘要

The present invention relates to a preprocessing technique for synthetic radar images. One embodiment of a method for preprocessing a synthetic aperture radar image is described, the method comprising: receiving range compressed radar data generated from raw radar image data on board a satellite or aircraft; generating a preliminary SAR image by performing pre-focusing on the range-compressed radar data; extracting an image sub-sector from the preliminary SAR image; transmitting the extracted image sub-sector to the terrestrial part; reconstructing distance-compressed radar data belonging to the extracted image sub-sector; and making the range compressed radar data pertaining to the extracted image sub-sector available to a nominal composite aperture radar processor, wherein the nominal composite aperture radar processor has a nominal value of image resolution higher than the resolution of the preliminary SAR image. and generate a focused SAR image.