Multistatic SAR Imaging: Comparison of Simulation Results and Experimental Data

Abstract

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems in a multistatic configuration are a promising candidate for future Earth observation and reconnaissance radar systems. They overcome the sampling constraints inherent to single-channel SAR systems. Thus, a multistatic SAR system enables the acquisition of high-resolution images while maintaining wide-swath coverage. Employing several small satellites instead of a single large one, a cost-efficient system with graceful degradation characteristics can be envisaged. Additionally, such a constellation or swarm of sensors offers interferometric and tomographic capabilities, which a single-satellite system is not able to provide. This paper shows results of multistatic experiments obtained with TerraSAR-X and TanDEM-X and compares these results with theoretical simulations. The key parameters analyzed are the Doppler spectrum and the azimuth ambiguity suppression.