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Side-looking Airborne
SideRADAR (SLAR) System
antenna
a.
Pulse
Generator
Transmitter
CRT Display or
Digital Recorder
transmitted pulse
Duplexer
sends and
receives
Receiver
backscattered pulse
antenna
b.
http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/of00-006/htm/slar.htm
1.0 m
Visible Middle-IR
UV
Near-infrared
10 m
Thermalinfrared
1 mm
1 cm
1m
10 cm
Ka K u X C S
L P
SIR-C/XSIRC/X-SAR
Images of a
Portion of
Rondonia,
Brazil,
Obtained on
April 10, 1994
nadir
near and
far range
p
depression
angles,
azimuth flight
direction
altitude
above
ground
level, H
look direction
of mic
rowav
e
energy
g
ran
on
cti
ire
kd
oo
el
pulse
near and
far range
iincidence
id
angles,
depression angle ()
n
nadir
far range
Radar
Nomenclature
near range
incidence angle ()
altitude aboveground-level, H
polarization
RADAR
logic
Azimuth Direction
The aircraft travels in a straight line that is
called the azimuth flight direction.
direction
Pulses of active microwave electromagnetic
energy illuminate strips of the terrain at right
angles (orthogonal) to the aircrafts
direction of travel, which is called the range or
look direction.
The terrain illuminated nearest the aircraft in
the line of sight is called the near-range. The
farthest point of terrain illuminated by the pulse
of energy is called the far-range.
Range Direction
The range or look direction for any radar image is
the direction of the radar illumination that is at
right angles to the direction the aircraft or
spacecraft is traveling.
Generally, objects that trend (or strike) in a
direction that is orthogonal (perpendicular) to the
range or look direction are enhanced much more
than those objects in the terrain that lie parallel
to the look direction. Consequently, linear
features that appear dark or are imperceptible in
a radar image using one look direction may
appear bright in another radar image with a
different look direction.
Look
Direction
a.
X - band, HH polarization
b.
X - band, HH polarization
look direction
look direction
10
Depression Angle
The depression angle () is the angle between a
horizontal plane extending out from the aircraft
fuselage and the electromagnetic pulse of energy
from the antenna to a specific point on the
ground.
The depression angle within a strip of
illuminated terrain varies from the near-range
depression angle to the far-range
far range depression
angle. The average depression angle of a radar
image is computed by selecting a point midway
between the near and far-range in the image
strip. Summaries of radar systems often only
report the average depression angle.
Incident Angle
The incident angle () is the angle between the
radar pulse of EMR and a line perpendicular to the
Earths surface where it makes contact. When the
terrain is flat, the incident angle () is the
complement ( = 90 - g) of the depression angle
(). If the terrain is sloped, there is no
relationship between depression angle and
incident angle. The incident angle best describes
the relationship between the radar beam and
surface
f
slope.
l
Many mathematical radar studies assume the
terrain surface is flat (horizontal) therefore, the
incident angle is assumed to be the complement
of the depression angle.
11
Polarization
Unpolarized energy vibrates in all possible
directions perpendicular to the direction of
travel.
Radar antennas send and receive polarized
energy. This means that the pulse of energy
is filtered so that its electrical wave
vibrations are only in a single plane that is
perpendicular to the direction of travel. The
pulse of electromagnetic energy sent out by
the antenna may be vertically or horizontally
polarized.
Polarization
12
Polarization
a.
Ka - band, HH polarization
look direction
b.
Ka - band, HV polarization
Polarization
The transmitted
Th
t
itt d pulse
l
off electromagnetic
l t
ti
energy interacts with the terrain and some
of it is back-scattered at the speed of light
toward the aircraft or spacecraft where it
once again must pass through a filter. If the
antenna accepts the back-scattered energy,
it is recorded.
recorded Various types of backscattered polarized energy may be recorded
by the radar.
13
Polarization
It is possible to:
send vertically polarized energy and receive
only vertically polarized energy (designated VV),
send horizontal and receive horizontally
polarized energy (HH),
send horizontal and receive vertically polarized
energy (HV), or
send vertical and receive horizontally polarized
energy (VH).
Polarization
HH and VV configurations produce
like-polarized radar imagery.
HV and VH configurations produce
cross-polarized imagery.
14
Slant-range versus
SlantGround--Range Geometry
Ground
Radar imagery has a different geometry than that
produced
d
db
by mostt conventional
ti
l remote
t sensor systems,
t
such as cameras, multispectral scanners or area-array
detectors. Therefore, one must be very careful when
attempting to make radargrammetric measurements.
Uncorrected radar imagery is displayed in what is called
slant-range geometry, i.e., it is based on the actual
distance from the radar to each of the respective features
in the scene.
It is possible to convert the slant-range display into the
true ground-range display on the x-axis so that features in
the scene are in their proper planimetric (x,y) position
relative to one another in the final radar image.
15
RADAR Resolution
To determine the spatial resolution at any point
in a radar image, it is necessary to compute the
resolution in two dimensions: the range and
azimuth resolutions. Radar is in effect a ranging
device that measures the distance to objects in
the terrain by means of sending out and
receiving pulses of active microwave energy.
The range resolution in the across-track
direction is proportional to the length of the
microwave pulse. The shorter the pulse length,
the finer the range resolution. Pulse length is a
function of the speed of light (c) multiplied by
the duration of the transmission (t).
Range Resolution
The range resolution (Rr) at any point between the near
and far-range of the illuminated strip can be computed if
the depression angle () of the sensor at that location
and
d th
the pulse
l
length
l
th () are k
known. It is
i possible
ibl to
t
convert pulse length into distance by multiplying it times
the speed of light (c = 3 x 108 m sec-1). The resulting
distance is measured in the slant-range previously
discussed. Because we want to know the range
resolution in the ground-range (not the slant-range) it is
necessary to convert slant-range to ground-range by
dividing the slant
slant-range
range distance by the cosine of the
depression angle (). Therefore, the equation for
computing the range resolution is:
Rr =
x c
__________
2 cos
16
Range
Resolution
Rr =
x c
__________
2 cos
Azimuth Resolution
Thus far we have only identified the length in
meters of an active microwave resolution
element at a specific depression angle and
pulse length in the range (across-track)
direction. To know both the length and width
of the resolution element, we must also
compute the width of the resolution element
in the direction the aircraft or spacecraft is
flying the azimuth direction.
17
Azimuth Resolution
Azimuth resolution (Ra) is determined by computing the
width of the terrain strip that is illuminated by the radar
beam.
Real aperture active microwave radars produce a lobeshaped beam which is narrower in the near-range and
spreads out in the far-range. Basically, the angular beam
width is directly proportional to the wavelength of the
transmitted pulse of energy, i.e., the longer the
wavelength, the wider the beam width, and the shorter the
wavelength, the narrower the beam width. Therefore, in
real aperture (brute force) radars a shorter wavelength
pulse will result in improved azimuth resolution.
Unfortunately, the shorter the wavelength, the poorer the
atmospheric and vegetation penetration capability.
Azimuth Resolution
Fortunately, the beam width is also inversely
proportional to antenna length (L).
(L) This means that the
longer the radar antenna, the narrower the beam width
and the higher the azimuth resolution. The relationship
between wavelength () and antenna length (L) is
summarized below, which can be used to compute the
azimuth resolution:
Ra =
S x
___________
L
18
Azimuth
Resolution
Ra =
S x
___________
L
19
Forshortening
Forshortening
a.
C-band ERS-1
depression angle =67
look angle = 23
c.
X - band
b.
look direction d.
look direction
L-band JERS-1
depression angle =54
look angle = 36
Aerial Photograph
20
Layover
Layover
Pasadena
N
21
Shadow
22
Number
of Looks
a.
b.
c.
23
Synthetic Aperture
Radar Systems
The Doppler principle states that the frequency
(pitch) of a sound changes if the listener and/or
source are in motion relative to one another.
24
Synthetic
Aperture
Radar
(SAR)
pulses of
microwave energy
9
a.
8
7
6
5
4
object is a
3
constant distance
from the flightline
2
timen
1
c.
b.
timen+1
timen+2
interference signal
radar hologram
9
6.5
d.
6.5
timen+4
ti n+3
time
+3
e.
6.5
Synthetic
Aperture
Radar
(SAR)
25
radar
hologram
Creation
of the
RADAR
Image
coherent light
9
7 6.5 7
8 etc.
etc.
image of
object
26
1
1
____ ____ Ar
4R2
4R2
Fundamental Radar
Equation
The modified fundamental radar equation is:
Pt x G2 x x 2
Pr = ________________
(4))3 x R4
(
27
=
a
Surface Roughness
Surface roughness is the terrain property that most
strongly influences the strength of the radar backscatter.
Wh
When
i t
interpreting
ti
aerial
i l photography
h t
h we often
ft
use the
th
terminology - rough (coarse), intermediate, or smooth
(fine) - to describe the surface texture characteristics. It
is possible to extend this analogy to the interpretation of
radar imagery if we keep in mind that the surface
roughness we are talking about is usually measured in
centimeters (i.e. the height of stones, size of leaves, or
length of branches in a tree) and not thousands of meters
as with mountains.
In radar imagery we are actually talking about microrelief surface roughness characteristics rather than
topographic relief.
28
Surface Roughness
There is a relationship between the
wavelength of the radar (), the depression
angle (), and the local height of objects (h in
cm) found within the resolution cell being
illuminated by microwave energy. It is called
the modified Rayleigh criteria and can be
predict what the earth's surface will
used to p
look like in a radar image if we know the
surface roughness characteristics and the
radar system parameters ( , ,h) mentioned.
Surface
Roughness in
RADAR Imagery
Expected
surface
roughness
back-scatter
from terrain
illuminated
with 3 cm
wavelength
microwave
energy with a
depression
angle of 45.
29
surface scattering
f
from
the
h top
of the canopy
Types of Active
Microwave Surface
and Volume
Scattering that Take
Pl
Place
iin a
Hypothetical Pine
Forest Stand
volume scattering
surface and
volume scattering
from the ground
30
L-band
23.5 cm
a.
C-band
5.8 cm
b.
X-band
3 cm
c.
SIR-C/XSIRC/X-SAR
Images of a
Portion of
Rondonia,
Brazil,
Obtained on
April 10, 1994
31
San
Fernando
San Diego
Freeway
The Cardinal
Effect is
Responsible for
the Pronounced
Bright Signature
of Portions of
Santa Monica
and San
Fernando in the
Space Shuttle
SIR--C/XSIR
C/X-SAR
Image of Los
Angeles, CA on
October 3,
3 1994.
1994
Santa
Monica
Pacific Ocean
32
Aerial
Photography and
RADAR Imagery of
the Pentagon in
Washington, DC
a. Oblique Photograph of the Pentagon
RADARSAT SAR
33
APPLICATIONS OF
SYNTHETIC APERTURE RADAR
RADARSAT
34
35
36
SAR #2
SAR #1
(90 + - )
r2
r1
h
Geometric
Relationship
Between Two
SAR Systems
Used for
Interferometry
to Extract
Topographic
Information
KARAKAX, TIBET
37
Interferometric map of
38