Feasibility of resolution-enhanced burst-mode interferometry in bistatic SAR

Abstract

Opportunistic SAR interferometry using a groundbased receiver and a spaceborne transmitter has previously been addressed. However, the analysis is limited to the conventional Stripmap mode of such radar satellites. The occurrence of satellite passes in Stripmap high-resolution mode is however not as frequent as passes in ScanSAR mode, hence the motivation to exploit ScanSAR mode illuminations by opportunistic receiver. In ScanSAR mode imaging, a burst-mode resolution enhancement method has been developed to enhance the cross-range resolution performance by exploiting the sidelobe emissions of the beams illuminating the adjacent sub-swaths. In this paper, the impact of this method on the interferometric performance is evaluated in the novel application of bistatic interferometry using cross-range resolution-enhanced burst-mode images.