Ship detection using airborne SAR data acquired at X-band

During the last years, the interest in maritime surveillance has been growing up, and spaceborne SAR systems may contribute to the improvement of security and safety at sea. As such, to allow observation of non-cooperative boats with revisit times compatible with the objectives of reactivity of maritime surveillance, the solutions proposed by CNES (French Space Agency) in SAR domain concern a radar operating at very wide swath, which implies grazing conditions of acquisition. Under CNES initiative, an acquisition campaign using SETHI, the ONERA airborne SAR sensor, took place over the Mediterranean Sea, south of France, in February 2009. The main objective of this dedicated campaign was to perform very precise measurements of sea clutter and ship RCS for numerous conditions of acquisition so as to improve the understanding of radar backscattering specially at grazing angles : incidence up to 87 degrees.