A matrix algorithm for SAR quick look imaging on digital signal processing

Synthetic aperture radar(SAR) imaging processing is a complex operation that requires large amounts of floating point computations. It is very time-consuming to convert SAR raw data into an image on microcomputers. This paper presents a digital imaging matrix algorithm. This algorithm includes range compression, azimuth compression and range walk correction which are implemented by matrix (vector) operation or matrix (vector) translation. It is available for implementation of SAR real-time imaging, and especially suitable for parallel computation on parallel processor, on vector processor. Especially, it provides a new design method for hardware process. The authors design a SQDSPS (SAR Quick-look Digital Signal Processing System) with the algorithm, which is different from the quick-look algorithm SPECAN. The experimental results indicate that the matrix algorithm is significant for saving the SAR imaging time.