Multichannel Along-Track Interferometric SAR System Implementation Using FMCW Radar

Abstract

Along-track synthetic aperture radar interferometry (ATI) systems are used to detect a moving target and to estimate its radial velocity. A dual-channel (single-baseline) ATI system estimates the velocity ambiguously because there are many candidate velocities corresponding to the interferometric phase. To resolve the ambiguity of the estimates, a multichannel (multibaseline) ATI system is required. This letter proposes an efficient implementation technique of a multichannel ATI system by using a frequency-modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radar and an antenna arrangement method considering the inherent bi-static characteristic of FMCW radars. Also, a simple and robust radial velocity estimation algorithm suitable for the proposed system model is presented. The validity of the algorithm is confirmed with simulated ATI results.