Ambiguities and Image Quality in Staggered SAR
Ambiguities and Image Quality in Staggered SAR
Ambiguities and Image Quality in Staggered SAR
AbstractStaggered SAR is an innovative synthetic aperture continuously varied, even in a cyclical manner, i.e., repeating a
radar (SAR) concept, where the pulse repetition interval (PRI) is sequence of PRIs, there will still be ranges, from which the
continuously varied. This, together with digital beamforming echo is not received, because the radar is transmitting, but in
(DBF) in elevation, allows high-resolution imaging of a wide general those ranges will be different for each transmitted
continuous swath without the need for a long antenna with
pulse. If the overall synthetic aperture is considered, it turns out
multiple azimuth apertures. As an additional benefit, the energy
of range and azimuth ambiguities is spread over large areas: that at each slant range only some of the samples are missing.
Ambiguities therefore appear in the image as a noise-like If missing samples are almost uniformly distributed across the
disturbance rather than localized artifacts. An analytical swath, a relatively small percentage of pulses is missing at each
expression for the range-ambiguity-to-signal ratio (RASR) in slant range, data can be interpolated on a uniform grid, and
staggered SAR is provided and a novel method for the estimation azimuth compression can still be performed over a wide
of the azimuth ambiguity-to-signal ratio (AASR) is proposed. A continuous swath. The staggered SAR concept is being
C-band design example based on a planar antenna is shown as considered for Tandem-L, which is a proposal for a
well. The impact of staggered SAR operation on image quality is polarimetric and interferometric satellite mission to monitor
further assessed using highly oversampled F-SAR airborne data.
dynamic processes over the Earths surface with unprecedented
Index TermsSynthetic aperture radar (SAR), high-resolution accuracy and resolution [6].
wide-swath (HRWS) imaging, staggered SAR, ambiguities, range
ambiguity-to-signal ratio (RASR), azimuth ambiguity-to-signal- II. RANGE AND AZIMUTH AMBIGUITIES
ratio (AASR), Tandem-L. Staggered SAR operation has significant effects on range
and azimuth ambiguities. In a SAR system with constant PRI,
I. INTRODUCTION during the acquisition of the raw data, the range ambiguous
echoes of a scatterer are located at the same ranges along the
Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is a remote sensing
whole synthetic aperture. This is due to the constant time
technique, capable of providing high-resolution images
distance to preceding and succeeding pulses and causes, after
independent of weather conditions and sunlight illumination
azimuth focusing, the presence of ghost targets in the SAR
[1]. This makes SAR very attractive for the systematic
image, because the ambiguous energy is integrated along
observation of dynamic processes on the Earths surface.
azimuth, even though the range migration is not fully matched,
However, conventional SAR systems are limited, in that a wide
as for the scatterer. In a staggered SAR system, the range
swath can only be achieved at the expense of a degraded
ambiguities are located at different ranges for different range
azimuth resolution, i.e., reducing the pulse repetition frequency
lines, as the time distance to the preceding and succeeding
(PRF) [2]. This limitation can be overcome by using systems
pulses continuously varies. The ambiguous energy is therefore
with multiple receive apertures, displaced in along-track, which
incoherently integrated and spread almost uniformly across the
simultaneously acquire multiple samples for each transmitted
Doppler spectrum. If the mean PRF of the system PRFmean is
pulse, but a very long antenna is required to map a wide swath.
much larger than the processed Doppler bandwidth Bp, a
If a relatively short antenna with a single aperture in along-
significant amount of the ambiguous energy is filtered out
track is available, it is still possible to map a wide area:
during the SAR processing. Moreover, the residual ambiguous
Multiple swaths can be, in fact, simultaneously imaged using
energy of a scatterer is spatially almost uniformly distributed
digital beamforming (DBF) in elevation, but blind ranges are
over the whole synthetic aperture and over a slant range equal
present between adjacent swaths, as the radar cannot receive
to the PRI span times half the speed of light. The same applies
while it is transmitting [3]. Most applications related to
to nadir echoes, which result from the same phenomenon.
environmental monitoring and climate research, however,
These peculiarities, as well as the specific sequence of
require a wide continuous swath, which also allows a more
PRIs, have to be taken into account for the evaluation of the
efficient coverage of large geographical areas.
range ambiguity-to-signal ratio (RASR). In particular, for a
Staggered SAR is an innovative concept, where the pulse
given sequence of PRIs, the RASR has to be evaluated for each
repetition interval (PRI) is continuously varied, thus allowing
of the M transmitted pulses of the sequence of PRIs. Due to the
the imaging of a wide continuous swath without the need for a
uniform distribution of the ambiguous energy, the RASR is
long antenna with multiple apertures [4], [5]. If the PRI is
978-1-4673-7297-8/15/$31.00 2015
c IEEE 204
then obtained for each slant range by averaging the RASR
obtained for the M transmitted pulses
PRFmean 2
G2 ( jm , f ) df
Bp 2
0jm
Am
N
PRFmean f = PRF
mean
1 M 1 j =1 R 3jm sin jm
RASR =
M m =0 Bp 2
main
0
G( main , f ) df
2 (1)
f =B p 2
3
Rmain sin main
PRFmean 2
G2 ( jm , f ) df
Bp 2
N
0jm
1 M 1 Am PRFmean f = PRF
M
m = 0 j =1
mean
G( , f ) df
2
main
0
main
f = B p 2
3
Rmain sin main
0
where is the backscatter, G(,f) is the two-way two-
dimensional (2D) antenna pattern (where is the elevation
angle and f is the Doppler frequency), R is slant range, and is
the incidence angle. The subscript main refers to the desired
return, the subscripts j, j = 1..NA, to the NA ambiguous
(preceding and succeeding) returns and the subscripts m, m =
0..M-1, to the transmitted pulses of the sequence.
Fig. 1 (a) shows the RASR in dB for an L-band staggered
SAR system with a 15 m reflector antenna, PRFmean = 2700 Hz,
and Bp = 780 Hz, evaluated using (1), while Fig.1 (b) shows the (b)
RASR for the same system operated with a constant PRF, Fig. 1. RASR in dB. (a) Staggered SAR. (b) Constant PRI SAR with PRF
equal to the mean PRF of the staggered SAR. The latter RASR equal to the mean PRF of the staggered SAR system.
is evaluated using the following formula, which accounts for
the 2D antenna pattern Several performance parameters and in particular the
Bp 2
integrated side lobe ratio (ISLR), defined as the ratio of the
G( , f )
2 energy of all sidelobes to the mainlobe energy can be then
0j j D df D
NA
f D =Bp 2
evaluated from the 2D IRF. Using the ISLR as a performance
j =1 R 3j sin j
parameter, it has been shown in [4] that sequences of PRIs
RASR (2) have to be preferred, for which two consecutive azimuth
Bp 2
samples are never missed for all slant ranges of interest and the
G( , f D ) df D
2
0
main main mean PRF is significantly larger than the Doppler bandwidth of
f D =Bp 2
the signal. This allows, in fact, the exploitation of the spectral
3
Rmain sin main properties of the azimuth signal within the resampling, using
best linear unbiased (BLU) interpolation. The ISLR, however,
As apparent, the RASR is up to 5.5 dB better in the staggered
is significantly influenced by the energy of the near sidelobes,
SAR case, due to the aforementioned incoherent integration of
so that a slight ISLR difference may result in a large AASR
the range ambiguous echoes.
difference. Moreover, the ISLR strongly depends on the
As far as azimuth ambiguities are concerned, for a
azimuth amplitude weighting, applied in the processing. In
staggered SAR system it is not always straightforward to
other words, it is not straightforward to establish a
evaluate the azimuth ambiguity-to-signal ratio (AASR) using
correspondence between ISLR and AASR, while the typical
the azimuth antenna pattern as for a constant PRI SAR,
azimuth ambiguity requirement for SAR system is provided in
because the resampling operation may change the shape of the
terms of AASR and not ISLR.
azimuth spectrum of the signal. In order to assess the impact of
azimuth ambiguities, therefore, the acquisition process and the
signal processing has to be simulated, assuming that only a
point-like scatterer is present in the scene. The focused data
obtained from the simulation correspond to the 2D impulse
response function (IRF) of the system. Fig. 2 shows the 2D IRF
for a typical staggered SAR system, where azimuth ambiguities
appear smeared.
(b)
(a)
(c)
(b)
Fig. 6. Ambiguity performance for the C-band staggered SAR system based
on a planar antenna for the single- and dual-polarimetric modes.
(d) (a) AASR. (b) RASR.
Fig. 5. Examples of applications of the proposed AASR estimation technique.
(a) AASR achieved for different staggered SAR resampling techniques,
i.e., two-point linear interpolation and BLU interpolation.
(b) Dependence of the AASR on the mean PRF of the system.
(c) Dependence of the AASR on the processed Doppler bandwidth.
(d) Dependence of the AASR on the mean duty cycle.
(a)
(b)
Fig. 7. Ambiguity performance for the C-band staggered SAR system based
on a planar antenna for the fully-polarimetric mode. (a) AASR.
(b) RASR.
Fig. 10. Simulated focused data assuming that only the twelve corner
reflectors are present in the scene for a low (top), medium (mid), and
high (bottom) oversampling rate, corresponding to ISLR values of
-12.95 dB, -13.78 dB and -14.23 dB, respectively.