System Design of GEO-LEO Bistaic SAR with High Resolution and Wide Swath

Abstract

Bistatic synthetic aperture radar(SAR) consists of a GEO transmitter and a low-earth-orbit (LEO) receiver is capable of providing higher signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and finer spatial resolution with less power consumption. Due to the complex geometry and huge big differences of the orbital characteristics, the system design of GEO-LEO BiSAR remains a challenge. In this paper, a novel system design method of azimuth multichannel GEO-LEO BiSAR is proposed. Firstly., the radar ambiguity is analyzed and the radar beam position is well designed for the high-resolution and wide-swath (HRWS) application. The channel joint digital beamforming technology is presented to solve the problem of determining the suitable pulse repetition frequency (PRF). Then., the key parameters., such as the signal bandwidth., the number of azimuth channels and the noise-equivalent sigma zero (NESZ)., are designed. Finally., simulation results verify that the performance of GEO-LEO BiSAR meets the requirement of HRWS application.