A new approach to range-Doppler SAR processing

Abstract In this paper we present a general analysis of frequency domain SAR processing based on the relationship between the phase of the two-dimensional Fourier transform of a point response to its range-time history. The paper demonstrates how this provides an appropriate basis for the design of a coherent strip-mode processor, free of geometric or phase distortion and artefacts and without excessive computational cost. In consequence the paper is highly relevant to the real-time, precision, processing of SAR data. The paper comments on the relevance of the analysis to ambiguity estimation and the processing of very long integration time SAR data.