INVESTIGATIONS ON THE RECONSTRUCTION OF MULTISTATIC LARGE ALONG-TRACK SAR CONSTELLATIONS FOR HRWS IMAGING

This paper presents first the performance analysis of the state-of-the-art multi-channel SAR signal reconstruction algorithms that suffer from the geometrical approximations. Then, it proposes a two-step signal reconstruction method for spaceborne large along-track baseline multistatic SAR constellations operated with a pulse repetition frequency (PRF) under the Nyquist rate. The suggested algorithm first applies a bulk polychromatic reconstruction in wavenumber domain and then compensates the residual range variance in range-Doppler domain. This simple modification helps to reduce overall phase errors in the reconstruction process of the analysed case with respect to the state-of-the-art algorithms by about one order of magnitude. The performance of the algorithm is verified by showing the results in point target simulations for a multistatic X-band constellation with a resolution of about 15 times the carrier wavelength.