Hinotori-X1 Mission: X Band Walr-Sar Onboard Boeing 737–200 Aircraft

We developed a novel concept for X-band (center frequency 9.4 GHz, HH polarization) airborne SAR, the Wide Area Long Range Synthetic Aperture Radar (WALR-SAR) onboard a Boeing 737-200 aircraft for simultaneous air and terrestrial disaster monitoring. This paper explains the configuration of our WALR-SAR system and slotted array antenna installed on the Boeing 737-200. Ground measurements of the slotted array antenna were realized to measure the characteristics of antenna and its results are discussed in this paper. Flight test of WALR-SAR onboard Boeing 737-200 in Hinotori-X1 (Firebird-X1) mission was performed during the period of 2 to 10 August 2017 at Pare-Pare and Makassar, Indonesia. Results show good performance of the WALR-SAR system and its image acquisition that covers the depression angle 0.5 to 42.0 degrees.