Spotlight-Mode Synthetic Aperture Radar: A Signal Processing Approach [Hardcover]

Daniel E. Wahl (Author), Paul H. Eichel (Author), Dennis C. Ghiglia (Author), Paul A. Thompson (Author), Charles V. Jakowatz (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0792396774 | ISBN-13: 978-0792396772 | Publication Date: January 31, 1996 | Edition: 1

Modern airborne and spaceborne imaging radars, known as synthetic aperture radars (SARs), are capable of producing high-quality pictures of the earth's surface while avoiding some of the shortcomings of certain other forms of remote imaging systems. Primarily, radar overcomes the nighttime limitations of optical cameras, and the cloud- cover limitations of both optical and infrared imagers. In addition, because imaging radars use a form of coherent illumination, they can be used in certain special modes such as interferometry, to produce some unique derivative image products that incoherent systems cannot. One such product is a highly accurate digital terrain elevation map (DTEM). The most recent (ca. 1980) version of imaging radar, known as spotlight-mode SAR, can produce imagery with spatial resolution that begins to approach that of remote optical imagers. For all of these reasons, synthetic aperture radar imaging is rapidly becoming a key technology in the world of modern remote sensing. Much of the basic `workings' of synthetic aperture radars is rooted in the concepts of signal processing. Starting with that premise, this book explores in depth the fundamental principles upon which the spotlight mode of SAR imaging is constructed, using almost exclusively the language, concepts, and major building blocks of signal processing. Spotlight-Mode Synthetic Aperture Radar: A Signal Processing Approach is intended for a variety of audiences. Engineers and scientists working in the field of remote sensing but who do not have experience with SAR imaging will find an easy entrance into what can seem at times a very complicated subject. Experienced radar engineers will find that the book describes several modern areas of SAR processing that they might not have explored previously, e.g. interferometric SAR for change detection and terrain elevation mapping, or modern non-parametric approaches to SAR autofocus. Senior undergraduates (primarily in electrical engineering) who have had courses in digital signal and image processing, but who have had no exposure to SAR could find the book useful in a one-semester course as a reference.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 448 pages
• Publisher: Springer; 1 edition (January 31, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0792396774
• ISBN-13: 978-0792396772
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #833,909 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Faulty approximations and poor "folksy" presentation, May 26, 2005

By 

Rodney Sinclair - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Spotlight-Mode Synthetic Aperture Radar: A Signal Processing Approach (Hardcover)

The book was a major disappointment given the previous "5 star" rating and high price. I quit reading the book after 56 pages.

As stated on page 34, a major assumption for the spotlight SAR processing appears to be that the wavefront "curves are well approximated with straight lines." Five pages later an example produces a 1500 m synthetic aperture length requirement for 1 m resolution at a 50 km standoff distance. The range migration for this example is $[(50e3)^2+(1500/2)^2]^{1/2}-50e3$, or 5.6 m. This is 6 range bins. Nowhere in the ensuing 17 pages is the magnitude of this effect discussed or treatment for it mentioned.

The treatment of the projection-slice theorem refers the reader to Appendix A for a one page generalization of the rotation property of Fourier transforms. A simple version could have been incorporated directly in the demonstration of the theorem and made the theorem more readable.

On page 45, "1 foot" is also referred to as "0.33 meters." One foot is exactly 0.3048 meters, or, when rounded to two digits, 0.30 meters. Alternatively, 0.33 meters is 1.083 feet, or, when rounded to two digits, 1.1 feet (although 1.1 feet is 0.34 meters when rounded to two digits). In any case, the arithmetic presented in the book is sloppy.

The "folksy" style adds lots of words and little substance to the presentation. Most technical authors do not find it necessary to refer to "mathematical" expressions when presenting equations since this is a fundamental part of the language for technical writing. There are several references to material which will be discussed later, which turns out to be minor. This disrupts the flow of the presentation, adding words but not content or connections. The presentation for the linear FM chirp is disjointed. The presentation in Curlander and McDonough is much better and produces a terminology that is clear and meaningful through the remainder of their book.

The book also uses notation that is inconsistent with other radar books. This makes it difficult to use the book as a reference because the meaning the terms used in the equations is not clear.

5.0 out of 5 stars Clear and concise, October 24, 2007

By 

cooleric1234 (Aurora, CO United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Spotlight-Mode Synthetic Aperture Radar: A Signal Processing Approach (Hardcover)

I think not enough practicing engineers are reviewing this book. I work in the radar imaging field and everyone I talk to at work loves this book. I just started in this field a few months back and I've found this to be much better than Carrera for learning about SAR imaging.

What's great about this book is that it is both clear and concise, which is very difficult to do. I feel like after having read the first two chapters I understand the SAR image formation theory. The tomographic paradigm explored in this book is so much easier to understand than the Doppler filtering ideas presented in other texts. It just makes sense.

The third chapter is also great because it basically gets into the details of how the operations in chapter two are actually performed. The author does a great job of building on the basic theory with incrementally understandable improvements (polar formatting, FFTs, windowing, etc.).

As someone just recently starting out I was able to pick up chapter four before anything else and understand and apply the Phase Gradient Autofocus method, which is also elegantly simple.

I'm currently reading the section on Interferometry, which I also find to be useful. I do wish there was some information on using interferometry (horizontal baseline) to detect and geolocate moving targets, but that can't be held against the author since that's a different field more applicable to range-Doppler imaging and MTI.

This is one of those rare text books that I actually enjoy and I feel is applicable to both the novice and experienced engineer alike.

1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent treatment of auto-focus techniques from the leader, March 14, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Spotlight-Mode Synthetic Aperture Radar: A Signal Processing Approach (Hardcover)

This book describes the PGA algorithm which is used extensively in all modern SAR systems. A clear and broad treatment of SAR processing. This should be the first SAR book you reach for. It's nice to read about algorithms from the originators for a change.