LMMSE 3-D SAR Focusing

Three-dimensional synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging, a technique also known as SAR tomography, uses multiple views to extend the capability of SAR systems to 3-D imaging by achieving a profiling of the scattering power at different heights. Multiple views are obtained with the current satellite technology via successive passes of a single antenna SAR sensor over the same scene, but next-generation sensor formations are foreseen to acquire multistatic data. Conventional processing, such as the beamforming, or singular values decomposition inversion is based on geometrical derivations and, hence, assumes the accurate phase calibration and the absence of target decorrelation. This paper analyzes the effects of phase miscalibration due to residual uncompensated atmospheric contribution and temporal decorrelation and proposes a 3-D imaging technique based on a linear minimum mean square error approach. The resulting algorithm extends the possibilities of the conventional processing by carrying out an integration of data that accounts for the a priori data correlation properties. Hence, it allows handling of the presence of additional stochastic contributions such as: temporal coherence losses and atmospheric phase miscalibration. Moreover, with reference to future bistatic and multistatic systems, it permits an improved coherent integration of data acquired by simultaneous antenna in repeated passes.