Design and development of offline processor and test data generator for FMCW SAR

Cost-effective and compact systems are required for modern airborne earth surveillance and observation platforms. Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) technology and synthetic aperture techniques together yield such systems. FMCW systems are very useful for earth surveillance in both civil and military applications. Huge computation power is required for real time Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) processing. SAR system should be simulated before actual system development in order to understand, analyze and estimate its performance. In this paper, development of Offline SAR Signal Processor and Test Data Generator is presented. SAR Processor forms focused images using raw data either generated from Test Data Generator or acquired from real FMCW SAR system. For the validation of image formation algorithms before actual system development, synthetic/test data is needed. Test Data Generator development fulfills this purpose.