An integrated radar imaging system for the STAR-2 aircraft

Abstract

A commercial lightweight, real-time digital synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) known as STAR-2 (sea-lice and terrain assessment radar) is described. The SAR system consists of the MacDonald Dettwiler integrated radar imaging system (IRIS) and is carried aboard a small executive twin-turboprop aircraft. The IRIS makes extensive use of digital electronics to provide data of high radiometric and geometric quality, in real time. The radar is an X-band HH polarized system that has an along-track (azimuth) pixel size of 6 m, and a choice of 4-m or 5-m slant range pixel size, yielding a swath width of 16 or 62 km. The data is processed to seven independent looks, to ensure high radiometric quality in the image. The system has a large dynamic range and this ensures that the radar can be used not only for terrain mapping, but also for detection of point targets. Along-track and across-track position errors have been reduced to the order of 30 m.<>