Bistatic and Multistatic Synthetic Aperture Radar

Abstract

This tutorial provides a comprehensive overview of the potentials and challenges of bistatic and multistatic synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems. Such systems employ multiple transmit and receive antennas which are mounted on separate platforms. The spatial distribution provides various operational advantages, which will increase the capability, reliability and flexibility of future SAR missions. The focus of the tutorial will be on spaceborne radar systems, but some examples from airborne campaigns will also be provided for illustration. The tutorial starts with a general introduction to the fundamental principles of bistatic radar imaging. Then, various bi- and multistatic SAR configurations will be analysed and their potential will be compared with regard to different remote sensing applications like frequent monitoring, silent operation, wide-swath SAR imaging, scene classification, single pass crosstrack and along-track interferometry as well as resolution enhancement. The system and mission design will be explained in detail using, as an example, the TanDEM-X mission which will be the first multistatic radar in space. Furthermore, major challenges such as phase and time synchronisation, bi- and multistatic SAR processing, safe formation control as well as relative position sensing will be addressed.