US 12,235,352 B2
Method for performing SAR acquisitions with enhanced azimuth resolution
Diego Calabrese, Rome (IT)
Assigned to Thales Alena Space Italia S.p.A. Con Unico Socio, Rome (IT)
Appl. No. 17/602,554
Filed by Thales Alenia Space Italia S.p.A. Con Unico Socio, Rome (IT)
PCT Filed Apr. 9, 2020, PCT No. PCT/IB2020/053408
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Oct. 8, 2021,
PCT Pub. No. WO2020/208578, PCT Pub. Date Oct. 15, 2020.
Claims priority of application No. 102019000005438 (IT), filed on Apr. 9, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2022/0187445 A1, Jun. 16, 2022
Int. Cl. G01S 13/90 (2006.01)
CPC G01S 13/9017 (2013.01) [G01S 13/9052 (2019.05); G01S 13/9054 (2019.05)] 10 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method for performing SAR acquisitions, comprising performing, in a time division fashion, SAR acquisitions of areas of a swath of earth's surface by means of a synthetic aperture radar system carried by an air or space platform;
characterized in that performing SAR acquisitions in a time division fashion includes contemporaneously acquiring, in each pulse repetition interval, a plurality of areas of the swath that are separated in azimuth, by:
(i) transmitting a plurality of radar signals by contemporaneously using different transmission radar beams, and receiving a plurality of backscattered radar signals by contemporaneously using different reception radar beams, wherein
(a) the transmission radar beams are angularly separated in azimuth so as to be pointed, each, at a respective one of the areas of the swath to be contemporaneously acquired, and
(b) the reception radar beams are angularly separated in azimuth so as to be pointed, each, at a respective one of the areas of the swath to be contemporaneously acquired;
wherein the transmission and reception radar beams used in T successive pulse repetition intervals form an azimuth-continuous angular span, whereby the areas acquired in T successive pulse repetition intervals form an azimuth-continuous portion of the swath, T being an integer greater than one.