Typically, when three or more antenna beams along a single axis are required, the answer has been multiple antenna phase-centers, essentially a phase-monopulse system. Such systems and their design parameters are well-reported in the literature. Less appreciated is that three or more antenna beams can also be generated in an amplitude-monopulse fashion. Consequently, design guidelines and performance analysis of such antennas is somewhat under-reported in the literature. We provide discussion herein of three beams arrayed in a single axis with an amplitude-monopulse configuration. Acknowledgements The preparation of this report is the result of an unfunded research and development activity. Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-program laboratory managed and operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, for the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administ ration under contract DE-AC04-94AL85000.
The complex coherence function describes information that is necessary to create maps from interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR). This coherence function is complicated by building layover. This paper presents a mathematical model for this complex coherence in the presence of building layover and shows how it can describe intriguing phenomena observed in real interferometric SAR data.
Direction of Arrival (DOA) measurements, as with a monopulse antenna, can be compared against Doppler measurements in a Synthetic Aperture Radar ( SAR ) image to determine an aircraft's forward velocity as well as its crab angle, to assist the aircraft's navigation as well as improving high - performance SAR image formation and spatial calibration.
Spurious energy in received radar data is a consequence of nonideal component and circuit behavior. This might be due to I/Q imbalance, nonlinear component behavior, additive interference (e.g. cross-talk, etc.), or other sources. The manifestation of the spurious energy in a range-Doppler map or image can be influenced by appropriate pulse-to-pulse phase modulation. Comparing multiple images having been processed with the same data but different signal paths and modulations allows identifying undesired spurs and then cropping or apodizing them.
Radar coherence is an important concept for imaging radar systems such as synthetic aperture radar (SAR). This document quantifies some of the effects in SAR which modify the coherence. Although these effects can disrupt the coherence within a single SAR image, this report will focus on the coherence between separate images, such as for coherent change detection (CCD) processing. There have been other presentations on aspects of this material in the past. The intent of this report is to bring various issues that affect the coherence together in a single report to support radar engineers in making decisions about these matters.
Monopulse radar is a well-established technique for extracting accurate target location information in the presence of target scintillation. It relies on the comparison of at least two patterns being received simultaneously by the antenna. These two patterns are designed to differ in the direction in which we wish to obtain the target angle information. The two patterns are compared to each other through a standard method, typically by forming the ratio of the difference of the patterns to the sum of the patterns. The key to accurate angle information using monopulse is that the mapping function from the target angle to this ratio is well-behaved and well-known. Errors in the amplitude and phase of the signals prior and subsequent to the comparison operation affect the mapping function. The purpose of this report is to provide some intuition into these error effects upon the mapping function.
This document is the final report for the 2009 Antarctica Crevasse Detection Radar (CDR) Project. This portion of the project is referred to internally as Phase 2. This is a follow on to the work done in Phase 1 reported on in [1]. Phase 2 involved the modification of a Sandia National Laboratories MiniSAR system used in Phase 1 to work with an LC-130 aircraft that operated in Antarctica in October through November of 2009. Experiments from the 2006 flights were repeated, as well as a couple new flight tests to examine the effect of colder snow and ice on the radar signatures of 'deep field' sites. This document includes discussion of the hardware development, system capabilities, and results from data collections in Antarctica during the fall of 2009.
This document is the final report for the Antarctica Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Project. The project involved the modification of a Sandia National Laboratories MiniSAR system to operate at X-band in order to assess the feasibility of an airborne radar to detect crevasses in Antarctica. This radar successfully detected known crevasses at various geometries. The best results were obtained for synthetic aperture radar resolutions of at most one foot and finer. In addition to the main goal of detecting crevasses, the radar was used to assess conops for a future operational radar. The radar scanned large areas to identify potential safe landing zones. In addition, the radar was used to investigate looking at objects on the surface and below the surface of the ice. This document includes discussion of the hardware development, system capabilities, and results from data collections in Antarctica.
We present new methods for resolving IFSAR ambiguities and SAR layover. The analytic properties of these techniques make them well suited for reliable, efficient computation.
The Rapid Terrain Visualization interferometric synthetic aperture radar was designed and built at Sandia National Laboratories as part of an Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (ACTD) to "demonstrate the technologies and infrastructure to meet the Army requirement for rapid generation of digital topographic data to support emerging crisis or contingencies". This sensor is currently being operated by Sandia National Laboratories for the Joint Precision Strike Demonstration (JPSD) Project Office to provide highly accurate digital elevation models (DEMs) for military and civilian customers, both inside and outside of the United States. The sensor achieves better than DTED Level IV position accuracy in near real-time. The system is being flown on a deHavilland DHC-7 Army aircraft. This paper outlines some of the technologies used in the design of the system, discusses the performance, and will discuss operational issues. In addition, we will show results from recent flight tests, including high accuracy maps taken of the San Diego area.
Data collection for interferometric synthetic aperture radar (IFSAR) mapping systems currently utilize two operation modes. A single-antenna, dual-pass IFSAR operation mode is the first mode in which a platform carrying a single antenna traverses a flight path by the scene of interest twice collecting data. A dual-antenna, single-pass IFSAR operation mode is the second mode where a platform possessing two antennas flies past the scene of interest collecting data. There are advantages and disadvantages associated with both of these data collection modes. The single-antenna, dual-pass IFSAR operation mode possesses an imprecise knowledge of the antenna baseline length but allows for large antenna baseline lengths. This imprecise antenna baseline length knowledge lends itself to inaccurate target height scaling. The dual-antenna, one-pass IFSAR operation mode allows for a precise knowledge of the limited antenna baseline length but this limited baseline length leads to increased target height noise. This paper presents a new, innovative dual-antenna, dual-pass IFSAR operation mode which overcomes the disadvantages of the two current IFSAR operation modes. Improved target height information is now obtained with this new mode by accurately estimating the antenna baseline length between the dual flight passes using the data itself. Consequently, this new IFSAR operation mode possesses the target height scaling accuracies of the dual-antenna, one-pass operation mode and the height-noise performance of the one-antenna, dual-pass operation mode.