2093 - Compare and discuss different SAR acquisition modes

Compare and discuss different SAR acquisition modes

Concepts

  • [PS2-2-2-3-2-3-1] Stripmap
    Stripmap is a acquisition mode of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data. By acquisition of data with the Stripmap mode radar antenna pointing is fixed relative to the flight line (coarse-resolution data).
  • [PS2-2-2-3-2-3-2] Spotlight
    The SpotLight imaging modes steer its antenna beam in azimuth direction to increase the illumination time, i.e. the size of the synthetic aperture. This leads to a restriction in the image / scene size. Thus, the scene size is technically restricted to a defined size: 10 km x 10 km.
  • [PS2-2-2-3-2-3-3] ScanSAR
    ScanSAR is an aquisition mode of a SAR system. The sensor steers the antenna beam to illuminate a strip of terrain at any angle to the path of aircraft motion.
  • [PS2-2-2-3-2-3-2-1] Staring Spotlight
    Staring SpotLight is a SAR acquisition mode currently available on the SAR satellite TerraSAR-X, allowing azimuth resolution up to 0.25 m. It uses beam steering in azimuth direction to increase the illumination time (i.e. the size of the aperture). The virtual rotation center is situated inside the image scene.