A miniature HRWS SAR concept for near-space vehicles

Near space is the region of Earth´s atmosphere that lies between 20km to 100 km above sea level, which is of interest for military surveillance purposes, as well as to commercial interests for communications. Currently there is a considerable effort to design and build synthetic aperture radar (SAR) payloads for near-space vehicles. This paper describes a high resolution wide swath (HRWS) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) system for near-space vehicles. The technical challenges for near-space microwave radar remote sensing are investigated. According to the miniature characteristic by the sensor, Frequency Modulation Continuous Wave (FMCW) radar type is chosen. The imaging characteristic of FMCW SAR is demonstrated. The system parameters are designed. At last the system performance is analyzed and the simulation result is also given.