SAR Processing with Motion Compensation using the Extended Wavenumber Algorithm

Modern Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) systems are continuously developing into the direction of higher spatial resolution and new modes of operation. This requires the use of high bandwidths, combined with wide azimuthal integration intervals. For focusing such data, a high quality SAR processing method is necessary, which is able to deal with more general sensor parameters. Wavenumber domain (Omega-K) processing is commonly accepted to be an ideal solution of the SAR focusing problem [1]. However, it is mostly applicable on spaceborne SAR data where a straight sensor trajectory is given. In case of airborne SAR data, wavenumber domain processing has certain limitations in performing high-precision motion compensation. In this paper, a detailed description of the motion errors in the wavenumber domain, as well as a motion compensation technique in this domain is formulated. The correction of the motion errors in the two dimensional spectral domain can result in very accurate second order motion compensation. This procedure can also be combined with a 2D sub-aperture technique, which results in a fully azimuth-frequency adaptive block processing scheme. The reason why the wavenumber MoCo can be very critical especially in low frequency-widebeam and high squinted SAR data, is that in these cases wavelength dependent corrections become mandatory.