LECTURE OVERVIEW

GEO203 – Remote Sensing Applied to Geology

• Principles of RADAR, SLAR and SAR

Lecture Series 4 • Characteristics of RADAR
RADARs (Application of Active Remote Sensing)
• SAR interferometry
• Applications of SAR
• Summaries

References
PRINCIPLES AND CHARACTERISTICS OF • Jensen, J. R. (2000) Remote sensing of the Environment, Chapter 9.
RADAR • Henderson and Lewis, Principles and Applications of Imaging Radar,
John Wiley and Sons
• Allan T D (ed) Satellite microwave remote sensing, Ellis Horwood,
• Examples 1983
• Definitions • F. Ulaby, R. Moore and A. Fung, Microwave Remote Sensing: Active
and Passive (3 vols), 1981, 1982, 1986
• Principles of RADAR and SAR • S. Kingsley and S. Quegan, Understanding Radar Systems, SciTech
• Resolution Publishing.
• C. Oliver and S. Quegan, Understanding Synthetic Aperture Radar
• Frequency Images, Artech House, 1998.
• Geometry • Woodhouse I H (2000) Tutorial review. Stop, look and listen: auditory
perception analogies for radar remote sensing, International Journal of
• Radiometry: the RADAR equation(s) Remote Sensing 21 (15), 2901-2913.

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 Web resources, tutorials
Canada
• http://www.ccrs.nrcan.gc.ca/resource/tutor/fundam/chapter3/01_e.php
• http://www.ccrs.nrcan.gc.ca/resource/tutor/fundam/pdf/fundamentals_e.pdf
ESA
• http://earth.esa.int/applications/data_util/SARDOCS/spaceborne/Radar
_Courses/
Miscellaneous:
• http://www.radartutorial.eu/index.en.html
Infoterra TERRASAR-X
• http://www.infoterra.de/image-gallery/images.html

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9/8/91 ERS-1 (11.25 am), Landsat (10.43 am) 6

Ice Oil slick

Galicia, Spain

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Paris Definitions

• Radar - an acronym for Radio Detection And Ranging

• SLAR – Sideways Looking Airborne Radar
– Measures range to scattering targets on the ground, can be used
to form a low resolution image.
• SAR Synthetic Aperture Radar
– Same principle as SLAR, but uses image processing to create
high resolution images
• IfSAR Interferometric SAR
– Generates X, Y, Z from two SAR images using principles of
interferometry (phase difference)

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What is RADAR? What is RADAR?

• Radio Detection and Ranging
• Radar is a ranging instrument
• A Radar system has three primary functions:
• (range) distances inferred from time elapsed between
transmission of a signal and reception of the returned - It transmits microwave (radio) signals towards a
signal scene
• imaging radars (side-looking) used to acquire images - It receives the portion of the transmitted energy
(~10m - 1km) backscattered from the scene
• altimeters (nadir-looking) to derive surface height - It observes the strength (detection) and the time
variations delay (ranging) of the return signals.
• scatterometers to derive reflectivity as a function of • Radar is an active remote sensing system & can
incident angle, illumination direction, polarisation, etc operate day/night

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Principle of RADAR Principle of
ranging and
imaging

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ERS 1 and 2
geometry

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Radar wavelength

• Most remote sensing radar wavelengths 0.5-75 cm:

X-band: from 2.4 to 3.75 cm (12.5 to 8 GHz).
C-band: from 3.75 to 7.5 cm (8 to 4 GHz).
S-band: from 7.5 to 15 cm (4 to 2 GHz).
L-band: from 15 to 30 cm (2 to 1 GHz).
P-band: from 30 to 100 cm (1 to 0.3 GHz).
• The capability to penetrate through precipitation or
into a surface layer is increased with longer
wavelengths. Radars operating at wavelengths > 4 cm
are not significantly affected by cloud cover

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Choice of wave length

• Radar wavelength should be matched to the size of
the surface features that we wish to discriminate
• – e.g. Ice discrimination, small features, use X-band
• – e.g. Geology mapping, large features, use L-band
• – e.g. Foliage penetration, better at low frequencies,
use P-band, but……
• In general, C-band is a good compromise
• New airborne systems combine X and P band to give
optimum measurement of vegetation

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Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR)
• Imaging side-looking accumulates data along path –
ground surface “illuminated” parallel and to one side
of the flight direction. Data processing needed to
produce radar images.
• Motion of platform used to synthesise larger antenna
• The across-track dimension is the “range”. Near range
edge is closest to nadir; far range edge is farthest
from the radar.
• The along-track dimension is referred to as “azimuth”.
• Resolution is defined for both the range and azimuth
directions.
• Digital signal processing is used to focus the image
and obtain a higher resolution than achieved by
conventional radar
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Important point
Some Spaceborne Systems
• Resolution cell (i.e. the cell defined by the resolutions
in the range and azimuth directions) does NOT mean
the same thing as pixel. Pixel sizes need not be the
same thing. This is important since (i) the La un ch A g en cy p ro pe rties re so lutio n
sw ath
independent elements in the scene are resolutions E R S -1 199 1 (-19 97 ) ESA C -V V 25 m
E R S -2 199 5 10 0 km
cells, (ii) neighbouring pixels may exhibit some R ad arsa t 199 5 CSA C -H H 10 -10 0 m
correlation. 40 -50 0 km
JERS 199 2-1 99 8 NASDA L-H H 18 m
76 km
S IR -C /X -S A R 199 4 (2x 10 d ay s) NASA L,C , X 30 m
DARA / ASI po la rim e tric 15 -90 k m

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ERS 1 and 2 Specifications Principle of
ranging and
Geometric specifications
Spatial resolution: along track <=30 m imaging
across-track <=26.3 m
Swath width: 102.5 km (telemetered)
80.4 km (full performance)
Swath standoff: 250 km to the right of the satellite
track
Localisation accuracy: along track <=1 km;
across-track <=0.9 km
Incidence angle: near swath 20.1deg.
mid swath 23deg.
far swath 25.9deg
Incidence angle tolerance: <=0.5 deg.

Radiometric specifications:
Frequency: 5.3 GHz (C-band)
Wave length: 5.6 cm

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Geometric effects

Shadow

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Foreshortening Layover

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Layover

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