Effect of pulse phase errors on the chirp scaling SAR processing algorithm

The chirp scaling (CS) SAR processing algorithm uses the linear FM property of the transmitted pulses to provide accurate RCMC and thus obtain better image quality. However, when the transmitted pulse is not linear FM, or if the FM rate is not known exactly, processing errors due to chirp scaling will result. This paper presents the resulting processing error in the CS algorithm, given pulse phase errors that exceed those expected in current SAR systems. It was found that the CS algorithm is insensitive to phase errors of this magnitude, and gives slightly better focusing than the range/Doppler algorithm