Search Results (10)

The inversion of ocean currents is a significant challenge and area of interest in ocean remote sensing. Spaceborne along-track interferometric synthetic aperture radar (ATI-SAR) has several advantages and benefits, including precise observations, extensive swath coverage, and high resolution. However, a limited number of spaceborne interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) systems are operating in orbit. Among these, the along-track baseline length is generally suboptimal, resulting in low inversion accuracy and difficulty in achieving operational stability. One of the approaches involves employing lower-frequency bands such as the L band to increase the baseline length to achieve the optimal baseline for a satellite formation. The LuTan-1 mission, the world’s first L-band distributed spaceborne InSAR system, was successfully launched on 27 February 2022. L-band distributed formation operation provides insight into the development of future spaceborne ATI systems with application to new exploration regimes and under optimal baseline conditions. There are two novel aspects of this investigation: (1) We described the ocean current inversion process and results based on LuTan-1 SAR data for the first time. (2) A cross-track baseline component phase removal method based on parameterized modeling was proposed for distributed InSAR systems. Both qualitative and quantitative comparisons validated the effectiveness and accuracy of the inversion results. Full article

This paper presents a new two-stage approach for suppressing strong clutter and detecting moving targets using scatterers’ spatial structure and signal similarity. Compared with the traditional strong clutter suppression methods, the proposed method considers both the spatial similarity and the channel correlation of the scatterers, effectively alleviating the false alarm probability and avoiding the missed detection problem caused via identifying strong moving targets as strong stationary clutter. Additionally, a detector is presented based on the linear degree of the radial velocity interferometric phase (LDRVP) to eliminate false alarms from isolated strong scatter points and the edges of strong scatterers. The experimental results of the X-band radar indicate the presented approach’s lower false alarm probability and superior robustness. Full article

Wind wave-induced artifact surface velocity (WASV) is an important component of the sea surface motions detected by synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems. Understanding the characteristics of the interference of WASV on SAR current velocity estimates is necessary to improve the accuracy of retrievals. In this study, we assessed and analyzed the sensitivity of WASV in C-band along-track interferometric (ATI) SAR to radar configuration, wind field, swell field, and a wave spectrum model. Results showed that the influence of wind speed on WASV increased with the current velocity. The swell also affected WASV, especially at higher wind speeds; WASV was more strongly influenced by swell amplitude than by swell wavelength. In terms of radar configurations, results showed that VV polarization was more suitable than HH polarization in the estimation of WASV. The interference of WASV was minimal at moderate incidence angles (around 40°), and an appropriate ATI baseline selection was also given. The WASV was more strongly influenced by sea states than by the wave spectrum model or by a spreading function. The findings of this study improve our understanding of WASV and provide a reference for the design of future ATI SAR current measurement instruments and projects. Full article

Circular synthetic aperture radar (CSAR), which can observe the region of interest for a long time and from multiple angles, offers the opportunity for moving-target detection (MTD). However, traditional MTD methods cannot effectively solve the problem of high probability of false alarm (PFA) caused by strong clutter. To mitigate this, a novel, three-step scheme combining clutter background extraction, multichannel clutter suppression, and the degree of linear consistency of radial velocity interferometric phase (DLRVP) test is proposed. In the first step, the spatial similarity of the scatterers and the correlation between sub-aperture images are fused to extract the strong clutter mask prior to clutter suppression. In the second step, using the data remaining after elimination of the background clutter in Step 1, an amplitude-based detector with higher processing gain is utilized to detect potential moving targets. In the third step, a novel test model based on DLRVP is proposed to further reduce the PFA caused by isolated strong scatterers. After the above processing, almost all false alarms are excluded. Measured data verified that the PFA of the proposed method is only 20% that of the comparison method, with improved detection of slow and weakly moving targets and with better robustness. Full article

Imaging position shift based on the multiple azimuth squint angles (MASA) mode is effective for target azimuth velocity estimation, whereas accuracy is low when target range velocity is high. In this paper, the estimation problem for both target azimuth and range velocities is considered based on the multi-channels MASA (MC-MASA) mode. Firstly, the acquisition geometry of MC-MASA mode and Doppler characteristics of a moving target are analyzed in detail, especially in squint mode. Then, for better moving target estimation, the stationary background clutter is removed using the displacement phase center antenna (DPCA) technique, and the failure in range velocity estimation with sequential SAR images is also discussed. Furthermore, a modified along-track interferometry (ATI) is proposed to preliminarily reconstruct the azimuth-and-range velocity map based on the MC-MASA mode. Since the velocity estimation accuracy is dependent on squint angle and signal-to-clutter ratio (SCR), the circumstances are divided into three cases with different iteration estimation strategies, which could expand the scene application scope of velocity estimation and achieve a high estimation accuracy along both azimuth and range directions. Finally, the performance of the proposed method is demonstrated by experimental results. Full article

There are two useful methods of current measurement based on synthetic aperture radar (SAR): one is along-track interferometry (ATI), and the other is Doppler centroid analysis (DCA). For the ATI method, the interferometric phase must be accurate enough for ocean current measurements. Therefore, the space-varying of phase imbalances along the range, caused by antenna phase center position error, attitude error, antenna electronic miss pointing, antenna pattern mismatch, and other reasons, cannot be ignored. Firstly, this paper mainly analyzes the above possible factors by using real GF-3 ATI data and error model simulation results. Secondly, the ocean current has been preliminarily measured by the ATI method and the DCA method, using CDOP model, based on the GF-3 ATI data of the ocean scene near Qingdao, China, which is up to around −1.45 m/s. The results of the two methods are in good agreement with the correlation coefficient of 0.98, the mean difference of −0.010 m/s, and the root mean squared error (RMSE) of 0.062 m/s. Moreover, by comparing with the current measured by high-frequency surface wave radar (HFSWR), the correctness of the analysis is further proved. Full article

Measurements of ocean surface currents in coastal waters are crucial for improving our understanding of tidal atlases, as well as for ecosystem and water pollution monitoring. This paper proposes an improved method for estimating the baseline-to-platform speed ratio (BPSR) for improving the current line-of-sight (LOS) velocity measurement accuracy in coastal waters with along-track interferometric synthetic aperture radar (ATI-SAR) based on eigenvalue spectrum entropy (EVSE) analysis. The estimation of BPSR utilizes the spaceborne along-track interferometry and considers the effects of a satellite orbit and an inaccurate baseline responsible for azimuth ambiguity in coastal waters. Unlike the existing methods, which often assume idealized rather than actual operating environments, the proposed approach considers the accuracy of BPSR, which is its key advantage applicable to many, even poorly designed, ATI-SAR systems. This is achieved through an alternate algorithm for the suppression of azimuth ambiguity and BPSR estimation based on an improved analysis of the eigenvalue spectrum entropy, which is an important parameter representing the mixability of unambiguous and ambiguous signals. The improvements include the consideration of a measurement of the heterogeneity of the scene, the corrections of coherence-inferred phase fluctuation (CPF), and the interferogram-derived phase variability (IPV); the last two variables are closely related to the determination of the EVSE threshold. Besides, the BPSR estimation also represents an improvement that has not been achieved in previous work of EVSE analysis. When the improved method is used on the simulated ocean-surface current LOS velocity data obtained from a coastal area, the root-mean-square error is less than 0.05 m/s. The other strengths of the proposed algorithm are adaptability, robustness, and a limited user input requirement. Most importantly, the method can be adopted for practical applications. Full article

In a dual-channel circular synthetic aperture radar (CSAR) and ground moving target indication (GMTI) system, the antenna baseline is not parallel with the flight path due to a yaw angle. The angle causes a varying group-phase shift between the dual-channel signals and therefore degrades the correlation between the image pair. Therefore, the group-phase shift needs to be removed before channel equalization. To resolve the problem, the interferometric phase term was deduced and analyzed based on the geometry of a dual-channel CSAR system. Then, the varying phase term with respect to the Doppler frequency and the varying group-phase shift over the range were compensated for in the channel registration. Furthermore, blind channel equalization, including two-dimensional calibration and amplitude equalization, was applied to eliminate the amplitude and residual phase differences between the channels. Finally, the amplitude image obtained using a displaced phase center antenna (DPCA) was multiplied by the phase image obtained with along-track interferometry (ATI) to detect moving targets. The experimental results verified the effectiveness of the method for both uniform and non-uniform clutter suppression. Full article

In past research, the problem of maritime targets detection and motion parameter estimation has been tackled. This new research aims to contribute by estimating the micro-motion of ships while they are anchored in port or stationed at the roadstead for logistic operations. The problem of motion detection of targets is solved using along-track interferometry (ATI) which is observed using two radars spatially distanced by a baseline extended in the azimuth direction. In the case of spaceborne missions, the performing of ATI requests using at least two real-time SAR observations spatially distanced by an along-track baseline. For spotlight spaceborne SAR re-synthesizing two ATI observations from one raw data is a problem because the received electromagnetic bursts are not oversampled for onboard memory space saving and data appears like a white random process. This problem makes appearing interlaced Doppler bands completely disjointed. This phenomenon, after the range-Doppler focusing process, causes decorrelation when considering the ATI interferometric phase information retransmitted by distributed targets. Only small and very coherent targets located within the same radar resolution cell are considered. This paper is proposing a new approach where the micro-motion estimation of ships, occupying thousands of pixels, is measured processing the information given by sub-pixel tracking generated during the coregistration process of two re-synthesized time-domain and partially overlapped sub-apertures generated splitting the raw data observed by a single wide Doppler band staring spotlight (ST) SAR map. The inclination of ships is calculated by low-rank plus sparse decomposition and Radon transform of some region of interest. Experiments are performed processing one set of COSMO-SkyMed ST SAR data. Full article

To realize ground moving target indication (GMTI) for a forward-looking array, we propose a novel synthetic aperture radar (SAR) system, called rotatable cross-track interferometry SAR (Ro-XTI-SAR), for squint-looking application in this paper. By changing the angle of the cross-track baseline, the interferometry phase component of squint-looking Ro-XTI-SAR caused by the terrain height can be approximately adjusted to zero, and then the interferometry phase of Ro-XTI-SAR is only sensitive to targets’ motion and can be equivalent to the along track interferometry SAR (ATI-SAR). Furthermore, the conventional displaced phase center array (DPCA) method and constant false alarm (CFAR) processing can be used to accomplish the successive clutter suppression, moving targets detection and relocation. Furthermore, the clutter suppressing performance is discussed with respect to different system parameters. Finally, some results of numerical experiments are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed system. Full article