Digital Processing Of Synthetic Aperture Optical Imagery

A synthetic-aperture approach offers one method for obtaining high resolution optical imagery with low-mass, satellite-based optical telescopes. Images recorded sequentially with different aperture configurations are sampled and digitized, and appropriate spatial-frequency-domain processing is performed on a computer to obtain the desired high-resolution imagery. Special steps can be introduced in these post-detection processing operations that allow a substantial reduction in the optical tolerances that must be maintained by the aperture elements in the imaging process.