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Advanced HRWS Spaceborne SAR: System Design and Signal Processing
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Advanced HRWS Spaceborne SAR: System Design and Signal Processing

A special issue of Remote Sensing (ISSN 2072-4292). This special issue belongs to the section "Remote Sensing Image Processing".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 October 2025 | Viewed by 4086

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Guodong Jin

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Electronic and Information Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 211106, China
Interests: spaceborne HRWS SAR system design and ambiguity suppression
Prof. Dr. Daiyin Zhu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Electronic and Information Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 211106, China
Interests: radar signal processing; high-resolution SAR imaging method
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Xinhua Mao

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Electronic and Information Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 211106, China
Interests: radar imaging
Dr. Wei Wang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Space Microwave Remote Sensing System, Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
Interests: spaceborne SAR system design and digital beamforming method
Dr. Yanyan Zhang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, 8092 Zürich, Switzerland
Interests: system design and signal processing of bi/multistatic SAR
Dr. Yashi Zhou

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
China Academy of Space Technology, Beijing 100094, China
Interests: SAR

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) operates by transmitting an electromagnetic wave towards the Earth's surface and recording the reflections to generate high-resolution images. The importance of SAR high-resolution wide-swath imaging lies in its capacity to capture detailed information over large areas with high spatial resolution. This capability enables scientists and decision-makers to monitor changes in the environment, detect natural disasters, assess crop health, and map urban areas with unparalleled detail. In environmental monitoring, SAR imaging can track deforestation, monitor land cover changes, and assess the health of ecosystems. In disaster management, SAR plays a critical role in detecting and monitoring floods, landslides, and earthquakes, facilitating timely response and mitigation efforts. In summary, SAR high-resolution wide-swath imaging provides a powerful tool for scientific research, environmental monitoring, and disaster management. Its ability to capture detailed information over large areas, under any weather conditions, makes it indispensable for understanding and managing our planet’s resources and hazards. However, the present generation of SAR systems still suffers from a tradeoff between range ambiguity and azimuth ambiguity, and these systems do not allow for simultaneous high spatial resolution and wide coverage, meaning that they cannot meet the expanding application requirements and increasingly stringent technical requirements.

The aim of this Special Issue about SAR HRWS system design and imaging is to explore advancements, methodologies, and innovations in the development of SAR systems capable of achieving high-resolution and wide-swath imaging simultaneously. This includes research on system design considerations, antenna configurations, waveform design, signal processing algorithms, calibration techniques, and validation methods specific to SAR HRWS systems. This Special Issue seeks to address the technical challenges associated with designing and implementing SAR systems that can provide high-resolution imagery over a wide area, which is crucial for various applications in remote sensing.

This subject relates to the Remote Sensing journal as it aligns with the journal’s objective of publishing cutting-edge research in the field of remote sensing technology and applications. SAR is a prominent remote sensing technique widely used for earth observation, environmental monitoring, disaster management, and other applications. The design and development of SAR systems capable of HRWS imaging represent a significant advancement in remote sensing technology, with implications for enhancing data acquisition capabilities and improving the quality and coverage of remote sensing imagery. By featuring a Special Issue on SAR HRWS system design and imaging, the Remote Sensing journal provides a platform for researchers and practitioners to disseminate their findings, exchange knowledge, and contribute to the advancement of SAR technology and its applications in remote sensing.

This Special Issue welcomes articles on the following themes:

  1. HRWS SAR system design;
  2. Novel antenna configurations for HRWS SAR systems;
  3. Advanced radar waveform design for HRWS imaging;
  4. High-resolution spaceborne SAR imaging algorithms;
  5. Beamforming method;
  6. Ambiguity suppression method;
  7. MIMO SAR technology;
  8. Advanced signal processing method for enhancing HRWS image quality;
  9. Accurate spaceborne SAR calibration methods;
  10. The novel concept of the future spaceborne SAR.

Dr. Guodong Jin
Prof. Dr. Daiyin Zhu
Prof. Dr. Xinhua Mao
Dr. Wei Wang
Dr. Yanyan Zhang
Dr. Yashi Zhou
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Remote Sensing is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • spaceborne synthetic aperture radar
  • HRWS SAR system design
  • high-resolution SAR imaging method
  • ambiguity suppression
  • SAR waveform design
  • beamforming

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

26 pages, 5355 KiB  
Article
Orbital Design Optimization for Large-Scale SAR Constellations: A Hybrid Framework Integrating Fuzzy Rules and Chaotic Sequences
by Dacheng Liu, Yunkai Deng, Sheng Chang, Mengxia Zhu, Yusheng Zhang and Zixuan Zhang
Remote Sens. 2025, 17(8), 1430; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs17081430 - 17 Apr 2025
Viewed by 81
Abstract
Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) constellations have become a key technology for disaster monitoring, terrain mapping, and ocean surveillance due to their all-weather and high-resolution imaging capabilities. However, the design of large-scale SAR constellations faces multi-objective optimization challenges, including short revisit cycles, wide coverage, [...] Read more.
Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) constellations have become a key technology for disaster monitoring, terrain mapping, and ocean surveillance due to their all-weather and high-resolution imaging capabilities. However, the design of large-scale SAR constellations faces multi-objective optimization challenges, including short revisit cycles, wide coverage, high-performance imaging, and cost-effectiveness. Traditional optimization methods, such as genetic algorithms, suffer from issues like parameter dependency, slow convergence, and the complexity of multi-objective trade-offs. To address these challenges, this paper proposes a hybrid optimization framework that integrates chaotic sequence initialization and fuzzy rule-based decision mechanisms to solve high-dimensional constellation design problems. The framework generates the initial population using chaotic mapping, adaptively adjusts crossover strategies through fuzzy logic, and achieves multi-objective optimization via a weighted objective function. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms traditional algorithms in optimization performance, convergence speed, and robustness. Specifically, the average fitness value of the proposed method across 20 independent runs improved by 40.47% and 35.48% compared to roulette wheel selection and tournament selection, respectively. Furthermore, parameter sensitivity analysis and robustness experiments confirm the stability and superiority of the proposed method under varying parameter configurations. This study provides an efficient and reliable solution for the orbital design of large-scale SAR constellations, offering significant engineering application value. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced HRWS Spaceborne SAR: System Design and Signal Processing)
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30 pages, 7887 KiB  
Article
A High-Resolution Spotlight Imaging Algorithm via Modified Second-Order Space-Variant Wavefront Curvature Correction for MEO/HM-BiSAR
by Hang Ren, Zheng Lu, Gaopeng Li, Yun Zhang, Xueying Yang, Yalin Guo, Long Li, Xin Qi, Qinglong Hua, Chang Ding, Huilin Mu and Yong Du
Remote Sens. 2024, 16(24), 4768; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs16244768 - 20 Dec 2024
Viewed by 614
Abstract
A bistatic synthetic aperture radar (BiSAR) system with a Medium-Earth-Orbit (MEO) SAR transmitter and high-maneuvering receiver (MEO/HM-BiSAR) can achieve a wide swath and high resolution. However, due to the complex orbit characteristics and the nonlinear trajectory of the receiver, MEO/HM-BiSAR high-resolution imaging faces [...] Read more.
A bistatic synthetic aperture radar (BiSAR) system with a Medium-Earth-Orbit (MEO) SAR transmitter and high-maneuvering receiver (MEO/HM-BiSAR) can achieve a wide swath and high resolution. However, due to the complex orbit characteristics and the nonlinear trajectory of the receiver, MEO/HM-BiSAR high-resolution imaging faces two major challenges. First, the complex geometric configuration of the BiSAR platforms is difficult to model accurately, and the ‘non-stop-go’ effects should also be considered. Second, non-negligible wavefront curvature caused by the nonlinear trajectories introduces residual phase errors. The existing spaceborne BiSAR imaging algorithms often suffer from image defocusing if applied to MEO/HM-BiSAR. To address these problems, a novel high-resolution imaging algorithm named MSSWCC (Modified Second-Order Space-Variant Wavefront Curvature Correction) is proposed. First, a high-precision range model is established based on an analysis of MEO SAR’s orbital characteristics and the receiver’s curved trajectory. Based on the echo model, the wavefront curvature error is then addressed by two-dimensional Taylor expansion to obtain the analytical expressions for the high-order phase errors. By analyzing the phase errors in the wavenumber domain, the compensation functions can be designed. The MSSWCC algorithm not only corrects the geometric distortion through reverse projection, but it also compensates for the second-order residual spatial-variant phase errors by the analytical expressions for the two-dimensional phase errors. It can achieve high-resolution imaging ability in large imaging scenes with low computational load. Simulations and real experiments validate the high-resolution imaging capabilities of the proposed MSSWCC algorithm in MEO/HM-BiSAR. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced HRWS Spaceborne SAR: System Design and Signal Processing)
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25 pages, 8230 KiB  
Article
An Innovative Internal Calibration Strategy and Implementation for LT-1 Bistatic Spaceborne SAR
by Yuanbo Jiao, Kaiyu Liu, Haixia Yue, Heng Zhang and Fengjun Zhao
Remote Sens. 2024, 16(16), 2965; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs16162965 - 13 Aug 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1148
Abstract
Bistatic and multistatic SAR technology, with its multi-dimensional, ultra-wide swath, and high-resolution advantages, is widely used in earth observation, military reconnaissance, deep space exploration, and other fields. The LuTan-1 (LT-1) mission employs two full-polarimetric L-band SAR satellites for the BiSAR system. The bistatic [...] Read more.
Bistatic and multistatic SAR technology, with its multi-dimensional, ultra-wide swath, and high-resolution advantages, is widely used in earth observation, military reconnaissance, deep space exploration, and other fields. The LuTan-1 (LT-1) mission employs two full-polarimetric L-band SAR satellites for the BiSAR system. The bistatic mode introduces phase errors in echo reception paths due to different transmission links, making echo compensation a key factor in ensuring BiSAR performance. This paper proposes a novel bistatic internal calibration strategy that combines ground temperature compensation, in-orbit internal calibration, and pulsed alternate synchronization to achieve echo compensation. Prior to launch, temperature compensation data for the internal calibration system are obtained via temperature experiments. During in-orbit operation, calibration data are acquired by executing the internal calibration pulse sequence and noninterrupted pulsed alternate synchronization. In ground processing, echo compensation is completed based on the above two parts of calibration data. A comprehensive analysis of the entire calibration chain reveals a temperature compensation accuracy of 0.10 dB/1.38°. Additionally, a ground verification system is established to conduct BiSAR experiments, achieving a phase synchronization accuracy of 0.16°. Furthermore, the in-orbit test obtained DSM products with an average error of 1.3 m. This strategy provides a valuable reference for future spaceborne bistatic and multistatic SAR systems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced HRWS Spaceborne SAR: System Design and Signal Processing)
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11 pages, 2622 KiB  
Communication
Joint Wideband Beamforming Algorithm for Main Lobe Jamming Suppression in Distributed Array Radar
by Xiaofeng Ma, Siqin Jiang, Shurui Zhang, Renli Zhang and Weixing Sheng
Remote Sens. 2024, 16(13), 2402; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs16132402 - 30 Jun 2024
Viewed by 1168
Abstract
In the increasingly complex electromagnetic environment, main lobe jamming significantly degrades the performance of a wideband radar system. To mitigate this issue, this paper developed a wideband main lobe jamming suppression algorithm based on a distributed array radar. Firstly, this algorithm utilizes eigen-projection [...] Read more.
In the increasingly complex electromagnetic environment, main lobe jamming significantly degrades the performance of a wideband radar system. To mitigate this issue, this paper developed a wideband main lobe jamming suppression algorithm based on a distributed array radar. Firstly, this algorithm utilizes eigen-projection matrix processing in the main array to cancel out the main lobe jamming for main lobe maintenance, and then suppresses side lobe jamming through null constraint beamforming. Subsequently, the large aperture of the full array is leveraged to form a narrow beam directed toward the main lobe interference. Finally, joint beamforming using the minimum mean square error criterion is employed. In scenarios where both main lobe jamming and side lobe jamming exist, this algorithm can adaptively cancel main lobe wideband jamming, suppress side lobe wideband jamming, and effectively control the significant loss of the desired wideband signals caused by main lobe jamming within a smaller angular range. Simulation results validate the effectiveness of the algorithm. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced HRWS Spaceborne SAR: System Design and Signal Processing)
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