Inverting the Circular Radon Transform

Abstract : In this report we show how image formation or reconstruction in synthetic aperture radar (SAR) can be viewed as the inversion of the circular Radon transform. The advantage of viewing image formation in this way is that it could be used in situations where more standard methods could fail such as high squint and ultra-wideband SAR. We examine previous work in the literature on circular Radon transforms and their inversion. Next, we present some novel techniques and analytic expressions for the transform of some key functions. We briefly consider motion compensation. Finally, we propose a number of possible methods that could be pursued to make new practical image formation algorithms.