Wide-Angle Sparse 3D Synthetic Aperture Radar Imaging for Nonlinear Flight Paths

Conventional three-dimensional (3D) Fourier synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging requires a collection of radar returns from multiple linear passes over a scene. Image resolution is improved by increasing the extent of these passes in azimuth and elevation. Hence, high resolution imagery requires large data collection times and storage capacity. In this work we investigate wide-angle 3D SAR image reconstruction for a sparse nonlinear collection path. This collection modality requires less data acquisition time and storage capacity than conventional linear collection. Images are reconstructed from measured radar returns using l(1)-penalized least-squares inversion. An example is presented demonstrating that images with well-resolved features can be formed using data collected along a sparse nonlinear path.