Synthetic Aperture Radar - 525.748

This course covers the basics of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) from a signal processing perspective. In particular, the course will examine why there are limiting design considerations for real aperture radar and how a synthetic aperture can overcome these limitations to create high-resolution radar imaging. Various SAR geometries will be considered. Image formation algorithms, such as range Doppler, chirp scaling, omega-K, polar formatting, and backprojection, will be reviewed and, in some cases, coded by the student. Other post-processing techniques, such as motion compensation, aperture weighting (or apodization), autofocus, and multilook, will be reviewed. Advanced topics will include interferometric SAR, polarimetry, continuous wave linear FM (CWLFM) SAR, and moving objects in SAR imagery. Students will work through problems involving radar and SAR processing. Students will also develop SAR simulations, in either MATLAB or Python, based on simple point scatterers in a benign background.

Course Prerequisite(s)

EN.525.648 Introduction to Radar Systems, along with either basic MATLAB or Python skills.