Aspects and Challanges Of COSAR Image Formation

Abstract

Correlating SAR (CoSAR) is an innovative remote sensing concept which delivers global coverage of ocean surfaces with a high repeat cycle. The main specific measurements provided by CoSAR are estimates of the normalised radar cross section (NRCS), Doppler shifts, and surface topogra- phy with higher resolution than microwave radiometers and larger coverage than state-of-the-art LEO SAR constellations. This paper analyses the specific geometrical characteristics of CoSAR surveys and discusses the challenges of efficient CoSAR image formation approaches. The paper will show that CoSAR image formation can benefit from the available knowledge in efficient bistatic and multistatic SAR image formation approaches.