Refactoring of the SAR-Processor CARAMBA to accommodate the representation and handling of bistatic data

Kurzfassung

The German Aerospace Center (DLR) is preparing for the DuoLIM mission, which requires the processing of bistatic Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data for the first time. Unlike monostatic SAR data, where the transmit and receive antennas are mounted on the same platform, for bistatic data, the transmit and receive antennas are mounted on different platforms. DLRs existing SAR processor CARAMBA was designed exclusively for monostatic data. Therefore, fundamental adaptations are necessary to enable the processor, to represent bistatic data. This report details the refactoring of the CARAMBA classes BaseAnt and CartTrack to accommodate bistatic configurations without compromising monostatic functionality. Additionally, the integration of AI-based coding assistants, specifically Claude Code, was evaluated during the development process. While the tools proved effective for minor tasks and boilerplate generation, they struggled with complex domain logic and edge cases, highlighting the necessity of human oversight. Validation tests on monostatic data confirmed that the refactoring of the CARAMBA processor was achieved without influencing the processing pipeline for monostatic SAR data. This work establishes the architectural foundation for future bistatic data processing.