Analysis and correction of maritime SAR signatures with the NRL MSAR

This paper describes the Naval Research Laboratory Multi Aperture Synthetic Aperture Radar (NRL MSAR) and presents initial results from the inaugural field deployment of this system. The NRL MSAR is an airborne test bed designed to investigate remote sensing and surveillance applications that exploit multiple along-track phase centers, in particular, applications that require measurement of scene motion. This paper presents the results of initial coherent analyses to estimate scene and target motion and to correct the image distortions that these motions induce. These images were collected over an ocean inlet and contain a variety of moving backscatter sources, including automobiles, ships, shoaling ocean waves, and tidal currents.