A scanning order design method of jumping spotlight SAR to simplify imaging processing

Spotlight synthetic aperture radar (SAR) can obtain high resolution SAR image but the observation area is restricted. This paper presents a new imaging mode named jumping spotlight SAR to achieve high resolution and wide swath simultaneously. In jumping spotlight mode, high resolution SAR image is acquired by antenna beams steering, and meanwhile the wide observation swath is realized through antenna beams scanning in range and azimuth directions. The imaging theory of jumping spotlight SAR is given based on the data acquisition geometry and some of the imaging difficulties are analyzed. Then the design principle of the antenna beams scanning order is proposed in this imaging mode. Simulation results show that the scanning order design rule can simplify the processing of squint spotlight imaging.