• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.83-90
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• 2009

A new IRF (Impulse Response Function) analysis technique in high resolution SAR image is presented by taking into account the real clutter environment. In order to investigate the realistic effect of clutter background on the impulse response function of SAR image, an ideally generated impulse response function is superimposed with a large number of background clutter data which are extracted from the various regions of an actual SAR image. As a performance measure, PSLR (Peak Sidelobe Ratio) of the clutter-contained IRF is presented in the various groups of clutter background, and finally the results are compared with the stochastic model.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.183-194
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• 2011

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is widely used because of high resolution imaging capability in all weather and day/night condition. In this paper development of Spotlight SAR simulator is proposed for image quality analysis. Proposed SAR simulator is based on the SAR system design parameters so that SAR image performance can be expected which is essential throughout the full system development procedure from the initial concept design stage to the final in-flight calibration and validation stage. The raw data of ideal point target is first generated by taking account of the flight and imaging geometry and the various SAR system design parameters, and the Spotlight image formation algorithm is implemented in order to obtain the point target response. Finally the image quality of the generated raw data is analyzed in terms of spatial resolution, peak to sidelobe ratio and integrated sidelobe ratio.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
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• v.21 no.7
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• pp.761-768
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• 2010

This paper presents an effective method to achieve the wideband waveform for high resolution SAR(Synthetic Aperture Radar) using the frequency multiplication technique. And also this paper analyzes the root causes for the spectral regrowth due to 3rd-order intermodulation in chirp bandwidth expansion scheme using quadrature modulator and frequency multipliers. The amplitude and phase imbalance requirement are defined based on the simulation results in terms of quadrature channel imbalance. This minimizes the degradation of range resolution, peak sidelobe ratio and integrated sidelobe ratio. The wideband chirp generator using the frequency multiplier and memory map scheme was manufactured and the compensation technique was presented to reduce the spectral regrowth of SAR waveform by minimizing the amplitude and phase imbalance. After I and Q channel imbalance adjustment, the carrier level reduces －28.7 dBm to －53.4 dBm. Chirp signal with 150 MHz bandwidth at S-band expands to 600 MHz bandwidth at X-band. The sidelobe levels are reduced by about 8 to 9 dB by compensating the amplitude balance between I and Q channels.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.251-263
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• 2022

This paper presents an idea of ScanSAR image formation. For image formation of ScanSAR that utilizes the burst mode for raw signal acquisition, most conventional single burst methods essentially require a step of azimuth stitching which contributes to radiometric and phase distortions to some extent. Time-domain cross correlation could replace SPECAN which is most popularly used for ScanSAR processing. The core idea of the proposed method is that it is possible to relieve the necessity of azimuth stitching by an extension of Doppler bandwidth of the reference function to the burst cycle period. Performance of the proposed method was evaluated by applying it to the raw signals acquired by a spaceborne SAR system, and results satisfied all image quality requirements including 3 dB width, peak-to-sidelobe ratio (PSLR), compression ratio,speckle noise, etc. Image quality of ScanSAR is inferior to that of Stripmap in all aspects. However, it is also possible to improve the quality of ScanSAR image competitive to that of Stripmap if focused on a certain parameter while reduced qualities of other parameters. Thus, it is necessary for a ScanSAR processor to offer a great degree of flexibility complying with different requirements for different applications and techniques.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.299-309
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• 2013

A comprehensive SAR(Synthetic Aperture Radar) simulation is considered to be a complicated task since a full knowledge of the signal propagation characteristics, antenna pattern, system internal errors and interference noises should be taken into account. In high resolution target application modes, the time varying nature of target RCS(Radar Cross Section) strongly affects the generated SAR images. In this paper, in-depth SAR simulations are performed and analyzed incorporating the STK tools and MATLAB software. STK provides realistic orbit parameters while its radar module helps to extract accurate radiometric parameters of ground targets. SAR raw data corresponding to a given target is generated and processed using MATLAB simulator. The performance is measured by PSLR(Peak Sidelobe Ratio) and ISLR(Integrated Sidelobe Ratio) for a point target, which can be used as reference parameters for accurate radiometric calibration. Finally, high resolution target simulations are performed by adopting time varying target RCS characteristics.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.99-106
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• 2008

A synthetic aperture radar (SAR) system is of great interest in many fields of civil and military applications because of all-weather and luminance free imaging capability. SAR image quality parameters such as spatial resolution, peak to sidelobe ratio (PSLR), and integrated sidelobe ratio (ISLR) can be normally estimated by modeling of impulse response function (IRF) which is obtained from various system design parameters such as altitude, operational frequency, PRF, etc. In modeling of IRF, however, background clutter environment surrounding the IRF is generally neglected. In this paper, analysis method for SAR mage quality is proposed in the real background clutter environment. First of all, SAR raw data of a point scatterer is generated based on various system parameters. Secondly, the generated raw data can be focused to ideal IRF by range Doppler algorithm (RDA). Finally, background clutter obtained from image of currently operating SAR system is applied to IRF. In addition, image quality is precisely analyzed by zooming and interpolation method for effective extraction of IRF, and then the effect of proposed methodology is presented with several simulation results under the assumption of estimation error of Doppler rate.