Discrete stepped strip and spoiled beam: Comparative analysis

One of the basic constraints of the SAR system is the relation between the azimuth resolution and the antenna dimension. The minimum Stripmap resolution is conventionally fixed at half of the antenna physical or equivalent dimension. The DIscrete Stepped Strip (DI2S) technique, patent pending ([6] & [7]), by using a SAR in time sharing, allows the acquisition of different strip images either to increase azimuth resolution or to have a multi-image system without increasing the number of receivers or partitioning the antenna. The improvement of the azimuth resolution can also be obtained by using the beam spoiling technique. In this paper the DI2S technique for the improved resolution will be illustrated comparing the achievable performance of the two techniques by using the same C band SAR system.