REAL-TIME HYBRID IMAGE PROCESSOR FOR SYNTHETIC APERTURE RADAR

PROCESSING OF SYNTHETIC APERTURE RADAR (SAR) DATA IS ESSENTIALLY A TWO DIMENSIONAL CORRELATION PROCESS. BECAUSE OF THE RANGE-WALK AND RANGE-CURVATURE PROBLEMS, THE ALGORITHM USED IS USUALLY COMPLICATED IN AN EFFORT TO CORRECT THESE EFFECTS. NEVERTHELESS THE MAIN DIFFICULTY OF REAL-TIME SAR PROCESSING IS STILL IN THE SHEAR VOLUME OF DATA WHICH DEMANDS EXTREMELY LARGE COMPUTATION CAPACITY. SINCE THE CROSS-RANGE PHASE HISTORY OF A POINT TARGET IS ESSENTIALLY LINEAR FM AND THE LINEAR FM WAVEFORM IS ALSO COMMONLY USED FOR RANGE COMPRESSION, A DISPERSIVE DELAY LINE (DDL) IS IDEALLY SUITED FOR SAR PROCESSING NOT ONLY IN RANGE BUT ALSO IN CROSS-RANGE DIRECTIONS. THE WORK PROPOSED HEREIN WOULD DEVELOP A HYBRID DDL/DIGITAL PROCESSOR FOR REAL-TIME SAR PROCESSING UTILIZING CURRENT, COMMERCIALLY AVAILABLE, TECHNOLOGIES.