Development of a ground-based, polarimetric synthetic aperture radar

A description of an indoor SAR measurement facility is given and a series of results is presented to demonstrate the imaging properties of the system. The aim of the work is to understand better the microwave backscatter characteristics of vegetation and soils. Based around a vector network analyser, the system uses synthetic pulse techniques to obtain high resolution images. The principles of the technique are presented, together with a description of the imaging algorithm used. Calibration procedures are implemented successfully and the images provide useful quantitative RCS information. The polarimetric capability of the system is demonstrated for both metallic and vegetation targets. The system is a precursor to an outdoor polarimetric ground-based synthetic aperture radar (GB-SAR), designed to be easily and rapidly deployable at widely separated measurement sites.