Joint anisotropy characterization and image formation in wide-angle synthetic aperture radar

Imagery formed from wide-angle synthetic aperture radar (SAR) measurements has fine cross-range resolution in principle. However, conventional SAR image formation techniques assume isotropic scattering, which is not valid with wide-angle apertures. Also, the spatial location of scattering centers may migrate as a function of viewing angle across the aperture. The problem of jointly forming images and characterizing anisotropy as well as characterizing scattering center migration in wide-angle SAR is considered in the thesis. The approach not only compensates for anisotropy and migration in the image formation process, but gives much more information, useful for scene interpretation, than a simple image would. A method based on a sparse representation of anisotropic scattering with an over-complete basis composed of basis vectors with varying levels of angular persistence is presented. Solved as an inverse problem, the result is a complex-valued, aspect-dependent response for each scatterer in a scene. The non-parametric approach jointly considers all scatterers within one system of equations.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Varshney, Kush R. (Kush Raj)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Müjdat Çetin.

• Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/37852

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/37852