Image quality enhancements to ASF ScanSAR processing

The Alaska SAR facility (ASF) has been producing calibrated Radarsat ScanSAR Wide B (SWB) image products for the science community with its ScanSAR Processor (SSP) since 1998. Through the years that SSP has been in operations, over 111,000 image frames of typical 500 km x 500 km coverage have been successfully delivered to users to achieve their science goals. While excellent image quality is the norm for the production SSP, anomalies in the form of artifacts were observed on occasion in some of the data products. These anomalies are mostly results of sub-standard signal data quality in terms of low signal-to-noise ratio and/or poor platform attitude stability and knowledge. ASF embarked on a program to enhance the SSP's capability to improve image product quality in spite of these data challenges. This paper describes this enhancement effort, the results achieved, the limitations and challenges remaining, and prospective future enhancement plans for the SSP.