Advanced operation mode techniques for an interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar

Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) operating at Ka-band frequency is increasingly being considered for spaceborne applications. The benefits are seen in the compactness of the instruments, the high bandwidth and resolution. Besides this the high carrier frequency facilitates single-pass interferometry by allowing for an accommodation of all transmitters and receivers on the same platform. This paper presents the instrument architecture and SAR performance for a system utilizing an advanced operational mode enabled through digital beamforming techniques.