A technique for specifying navigation system performance requirements in SAR motion compensation applications

A technique for specifying SAR (synthetic aperture radar) motion compensation requirements at the INS (inertial navigation system) level has been developed and tested. The significance of this technique is that it provides a method of specifying SAR image quality imposed INS requirements at the INS level in terms of SAR image quality parameters. This technique allows the relaxation of requirements due to the use of autofocus to be directly implemented in the system requirements. The results of the testing have proven that this technique can be easily implemented as part of normal INS acceptance testing and that the requirements are not overly restrictive. Thus, the INS vendor retains the flexibility of choosing the inertial sensors and system configuration necessary to meet the SAR motion compensation system-level requirements. The techniques provides a direct comparison to SAR performance requirements imposed by the radar customer