Spatial resolution improvement using a SPECAN approach in SAR data processing

As part of its research and technology activities, the French space agency CNES studies a spaceborne SAR Earth observation system to provide complementary information with optical sensors. A major problem encountered is the high data flow to be transmitted from satellite to Earth in the available communication channels. The SPECAN concept (1985), combined with parametric spectral estimation, S.M. Kay (1987), provides a way to process the data on board the satellite. The consequent data compression coefficient obtained with such a method has been shown to be of the order of 14 to 16. In this paper, the authors show that this original method of estimation offers high spatial azimuth resolution. The resolution obtained depends on the local SNR and the number of coefficient used in the modeling operations