The use of Barycentric BPA for passive SAR imaging

This paper presents the results of passive synthetic aperture radar (PSAR) imaging obtained with a barycentric back-projection algorithm (BBPA). The main idea of this algorithm is to minimize the size of the raw radar data used in image reconstruction. This solution allows for the significant reduction of the number of calculations in comparison to classical back-projection algorithms (BPA), and is easily parallelizable. These opportunities provide the ability to create a compact PSAR system using a software defined radio (SDR) device as an analog-to-digital converter and a mobile graphics processing unit (GPU) platform as a processing unit. The components used facilitate installation on an airplane platform due to their small dimensions. The results presented in this paper were obtained using PSAR data collected within a recent APART-GAS (Active PAssive Radar Trials - Ground based, Airborne, Seaborne) measurement campaign which was held on 3-13 September 2019 in Poland. The work described in this paper may contribute to the building of future PSAR systems working in real-time conditions.

I. Introduction

The idea of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) for Earth surface imaging is well-known nowadays. A radar mounted on a platform such as a satellite or an aircraft moves and changes its position according to observed targets. The emitted signal reflects from the illuminated objects, therefore a high-resolution two-dimensional image of the Earth’s surface may be obtained [1] –[3].