Modulated-ISRJ rejection using online dictionary learning for synthetic aperture radar imagery

In electromagnetic countermeasures circumstances,synthetic aperture radar(SAR)imagery usually suffers from severe quality degradation from modulated interrupt sampling repeater jamming(MISRJ),which usually owes considerable coherence with the SAR transmission waveform together with periodical modulation patterns.This paper develops an MISRJ suppression algorithm for SAR imagery with online dictionary learning.In the algorithm,the jamming modulation temporal properties are exploited with extracting and sorting MISRJ slices using fast-time autocorrelation.Online dictionary learning is followed to separate real signals from jamming slices.Under the learned representation,time-varying MISRJs are suppressed effectively.Both simulated and real-measured SAR data are also used to confirm advantages in suppressing time-varying MISRJs over traditional methods.

Resolving co- and early post-seismic slip variations of the 2021 MW 7.4 Madoi earthquake in east Bayan Har block with a block-wide distributed deformation mode from satellite synthetic aperture radar data

On 21 May 2021(UTC),an MW 7.4 earthquake jolted the east Bayan Har block in the Tibetan Plateau.The earthquake received widespread attention as it is the largest event in the Tibetan Plateau and its surroundings since the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake,and especially in proximity to the seismic gaps on the east Kunlun fault.Here we use satellite interferometric synthetic aperture radar data and subpixel offset observations along the range directions to characterize the coseismic deformation of the earthquake.Range offset displacements depict clear surface ruptures with a total length of~170 km involving two possible activated fault segments in the earthquake.Coseismic modeling results indicate that the earthquake was dominated by left-lateral strike-slip motions of up to 7 m within the top 12 km of the crust.The well-resolved slip variations are characterized by five major slip patches along strike and 64%of shallow slip deficit,suggesting a young seismogenic structure.Spatial-temporal changes of the postseismic deformation are mapped from early 6-day and 24-day InSAR observations,and are well explained by time-dependent afterslip models.Analysis of Global Navigation Satellite System(GNSS)velocity profiles and strain rates suggests that the eastward extrusion of plateau is diffusely distributed across the east Bayan Har block,but exhibits significant lateral heterogeneities,as evidenced by magnetotelluric observations.The block-wide distributed deformation of the east Bayan Har block along with the significant co-and post-seismic stress loadings from the Madoi earthquake imply high seismic risks along regional faults,especially the Tuosuo Lake and Maqên-Maqu segments of the Kunlun fault that are known as seismic gaps.

Design of synthetic aperture radar low-intercept radio frequency stealth

Not confined to a certain point,such as waveform,this paper systematically studies the low-intercept radio frequency(RF)stealth design of synthetic aperture radar(SAR)from the system level.The study is carried out from two levels.In the first level,the maximum low-intercept range equation of the conventional SAR system is deduced firstly,and then the maximum low-intercept range equation of the multiple-input multiple-output SAR system is deduced.In the second level,the waveform design and imaging method of the low-intercept RF SAR system are given and verified by simulation.Finally,the main technical characteristics of the lowintercept RF stealth SAR system are given to guide the design of low-intercept RF stealth SAR system.

Effect of digital elevation models on monitoring slope displacements in open-pit mine by differential interferometry synthetic aperture radar

Displacement monitoring in open-pit mines is one of the important tasks for safe management of mining processes.Differential interferometric synthetic aperture radar(DInSAR),mounted on an artificial satellite,has the potential to be a cost-effective method for monitoring surface displacements over extensive areas,such as open-pit mines.DInSAR requires the ground surface elevation data in the process of its analysis as a digital elevation model(DEM).However,since the topography of the ground surface in open-pit mines changes largely due to excavations,measurement errors can occur due to insufficient information on the elevation of mining areas.In this paper,effect of different elevation models on the accuracy of the displacement monitoring results by DInSAR is investigated at a limestone quarry.In addition,validity of the DInSAR results using an appropriate DEM is examined by comparing them with the results obtained by global positioning system(GPS)monitoring conducted for three years at the same limestone quarry.It is found that the uncertainty of DEMs induces large errors in the displacement monitoring results if the baseline length of the satellites between the master and the slave data is longer than a few hundred meters.Comparing the monitoring results of DInSAR and GPS,the root mean square error(RMSE)of the discrepancy between the two sets of results is less than 10 mm if an appropriate DEM,considering the excavation processes,is used.It is proven that DInSAR can be applied for monitoring the displacements of mine slopes with centimeter-level accuracy.

Observation of Offshore Wind Farm Wakes by Spaceborne Synthetic Aperture Radar

In this paper,studies on offshore wind farm wakes observed by spaceborne synthetic aperture radar(SAR)are reviewed mainly based on our previous research.Particularly,we focus on investigating wind wakes and tidal current wakes observed by spaceborne SAR of Terra SAR-X,Gaofen-3 and Radarsat-2 in high spatial resolution,in two offshores wind farms,i.e.,the Alpha Ventus in the North Sea and the one near Donghai bridge in the East China Sea.Representing examples of wind wakes and tidal current wakes observed by SAR in the two farms are presented and compared.A preliminary statistical analysis on morphology of wind feature downstream Alpha Ventus is presented as well.Besides these studies on wind wakes generated by a single offshore wind farm,we show an example of wakes downstream multiple wind farms in the North Sea to demonstrate"cluster"effect of multiple offshore wind farms on sea wind.

Carbon stock estimation by dual-polarized synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and forest inventory data in a Mediterranean forest landscape

Forest ecosystems play a crucial role in mitigating global climate change by forming massive carbon sinks. Their carbon stocks and stock changes need to be quantified for carbon budget balancing and international reporting schemes. However, direct sampling and biomass weighing may not always be possible for quantification studies conducted in large forests. In these cases, indirect methods that use forest inventory information combined with remote sensing data can be beneficial. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images offer numerous opportunities to researchers as freely distributed remote sensing data. This study aims to estimate the amount of total carbon stock (TCS) in forested lands of the Kizildag Forest Enterprise. To this end, the actual storage capacities of five carbon pools, i.e. above- and below-ground, deadwood, litter, and soil, were calculated using the indirect method based on ground measurements of 264 forest inventory plots. They were then associated with the backscattered values from Sentinel-1 and ALOS-2 PALSAR-2 data in a Geographical Information System (GIS). Finally, TCS was separately modelled and mapped. The best regression model was developed using the HH polarization of ALOS-2 PALSAR-2 with an adjusted R^(2) of 0.78 (p < 0.05). According to the model, the estimated TCS was about 2 Mt for the entire forest, with an average carbon storage of 133 t ha^(−1). The map showed that the distribution of TCS was heterogenic across the study area. Carbon hotspots were mostly composed of pure stands of Anatolian black pine and mixed, over-mature stands of Lebanese cedar and Taurus fir. It was concluded that the total carbon stocks of forest ecosystems could be estimated using appropriate SAR images at acceptable accuracy levels for forestry purposes. The use of additional ancillary data may provide more delicate and reliable estimations in the future. Given the implications of this study, the spatiotemporal dynamics of carbon can be effectively controlled by forest management when coupled with easily accessible space-borne radar data.

Semisupervised heterogeneous ensemble for ship target discrimination in synthetic aperture radar images

Ship detection using synthetic aperture radar(SAR)plays an important role in marine applications.The existing methods are capable of quickly obtaining many candidate targets,but numerous non-ship objects may be wrongly detected in complex backgrounds.These non-ship false alarms can be excluded by training discriminators,and the desired accuracy is obtained with enough verified samples.However,the reliable verification of targets in large-scene SAR images still inevitably requires manual interpretation,which is difficult and time consuming.To address this issue,a semisupervised heterogeneous ensemble ship target discrimination method based on a tri-training scheme is proposed to take advantage of the plentiful candidate targets.Specifically,various features commonly used in SAR image target discrimination are extracted,and several acknowledged classification models and their classic variants are investigated.Multiple discriminators are constructed by dividing these features into different groups and pairing them with each model.Then,the performance of all the discriminators is tested,and better discriminators are selected for implementing the semisupervised training process.These strategies enhance the diversity and reliability of the discriminators,and their heterogeneous ensemble makes more correct judgments on candidate targets,which facilitates further positive training.Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms traditional tritraining.

Inverse synthetic aperture radar range profile compensation of plasma-sheath-enveloped reentry object

The scattering points in a plasma sheath characterized with coupled velocities can cause pulse compression mismatching,which results in displacement and energy diffusion in the onedimension range profile.To solve this problem,we deduce the echo model of the plasma-sheathenveloped reentry object.By estimating the coupled velocities,we propose a compensation method to correct the defocus of an inverse synthetic aperture radar(ISAR)image in range dimension to improve the quality of the ISAR images.The simulation results suggest that the echoes from different regions of the surface of the reentry object have various coupling velocities,and the higher the coupled velocity,the more serious the displacement and energy diffusion in the range dimension.Our proposed method can correct the range dimension aberration.Two measurement metrics were used to evaluate the improvement of the compensation method.

Simulation and Analysis of the Impacts of Anisotropic Ionospheric Scintallition on Geosynchronous Synthetic Aperture Radar

The impacts of ionospheric scintillation on geosynchronous synthetic aperture radar(GEO SAR)focusing is studied based on the multiple phase screen(MPS)theory.The power spectrum density of electron irregularities is first modified according to the ionospheric anisotropy.Then propagation wave equations in random medium are deduced in the case of oblique incidence in GEO SAR.The amplitude and phase errors induced by the random electron fluctuations are generated by the iterated MPS simulations and are superimposed into the GEO SAR signals.Through the following imaging and evaluation,the effects of the anisotropic ionospheric scintallition on GEO SAR are assessed.At last,the optimized integration time under different ionospheric scintillation conditions are recommended through Monte Carlo experiments.It is concluded that,greater ionospheric fluctuations and longer integration time will result in more severe deterioration,even no focus at all in the worst case.

A novel synthetic aperture radar scattering model for sea surface with breaking waves

In this study a novel synthetic aperture radar(SAR)scattering model for sea surface with breaking waves is proposed.Compared with existing models,the proposed model considers an empirical relationship between wind speed and wave breaking scattering to present the contribution of wave breaking.Moreover,the scattering weight factor p,and wave breaking rate q,are performed to present the contribution of the quasi-specular scattering term,Bragg scattering term,and wave breaking scattering term to the total scattering from the sea surface.To explore the modeling accuracy of sea-surface scattering,a simulated normalized radar cross-section(NRCS)and measured NRCS are compared.The proposed model generated the simulated NRCS and a matching GF-3 dataset was used for the measured NRCS.It was revealed that the performance of the VV polarization of our model was much better than that of HH polarization,with a correlation of 0.91,bias of-0.14 dB,root mean square error(RMSE)of 1.26 dB,and scattering index(SI)of-0.11.In addition,the novel model is explored and compared with the geophysical model of CMODs and satellite-measured NRCS from GF-3 SAR wave mode imagery.For an incidence angle 40°–41°,the relationship between the NRCS and wind speed,relative wind direction is proposed.As with the SAR-measured NRCS,the performance of VV polarization was much better than HH polarization,with a correlation of 0.99,bias of-0.25 dB,RMSE of 0.64 dB,and SI of-0.04.

Improved chirp scaling algorithm integrated motion compensation for parallel-track bistatic synthetic aperture radar

To compensate motion errors of images from the parallel-track bistatic synthetic aperture radar(BiSAR),an improved chirp scaling algorithm(CSA) is proposed.Since velocity vector of the moving aircrafts in the parallel-track BiSAR system can not remain invariant in an aperture,an actual aperture is divided into subapertures so that it is reasonable to assume that the aircrafts move with constant acceleration vector in a subaperture.Based on this model,an improved CSA is derived.The new phase factors incorporate three-dimensional acceleration and velocity.The motion compensation procedure is integrated into the CSA without additional operation required.The simulation results show that the presented algorithm can efficiently resolve motion compensation for parallel-track BiSAR.

IMAGING ANALYSIS OF FREQUENCY MODULATION CONTINUOUS WAVE SYNTHETIC APERTURE RADAR IN NEAR RANGE MODE

Frequency-Modulation Continuous-Wave Synthetic Aperture Radar(FMCW SAR)has shown great potential in the applications of civil and military fields because of its easy deployment and low cost.However,most of these work and analysis are concentrated on airborne FMCW SAR,where the characteristics of the imaging geometry and signal are much similar to that of traditional pulsed-SAR.As a result,a series of test campaigns of automobile-based FMCW SAR were sponsored by Institute of Electronics,Chinese Academy of Sciences(IECAS)in the autumn of 2012.In this paper,we analyze the imaging issues of FMCW SAR in automobile mode(named as near range mode),where a vehicle is used as moving platform and a large looking angle is configured.The imaging geometry and signal properties are analyzed in detail.We emphasize the difference of the near range mode from the traditional airborne SAR mode.Based on the analysis,a focusing approach is proposed in the paper to handle the data focusing in the case.Simulation experiment and real data of automobile FMCW SAR are used to validate the analysis.

WATERMARKING WITH REFINED PERCEPTUAL MASKING TUNED FOR SYNTHETIC APERTURE RADAR IMAGES

A watermarking scheme designed for remote sensing images needs to meet the same demand of both invisibility as for ordinary digital images. Due to specific perceptual characteristics of Synthetic Aperture Radar(SAR) images, the watermarking algorithms with consideration of Human Vision System(HVS) modeling from optical images give poor performance when applied on SAR images. This paper examines a variety of factors affecting the noise sensitivity, and further proposes a refined pixel-wise masking approach for watermarking on SAR images. The proposed approach is applied on logarithmic transformed SAR images, and has increased the acceptable watermark embedding strength by about 6 dB to 10 dB while achieving the same levels of watermarked image visual quality. Experimental results show that this approach enhanced the perceptual invisibility of watermarking based on wavelet decomposition.

CROSS-RANGE RESOLUTION OF SYNTHETIC APERTURE RADAR BASED ON DIVING MODEL

This paper concentrates on the cross-range resolution of Synthetic Aperture Radar(SAR) based on diving model.In comparison to the azimuth resolution,the cross-range resolution can manifest the two-dimensional resolution ability of the imaging sensor SAR correctly.The diving model of SAR is an extended model from the conventional stripmap model,and the cross-range resolution expression is deduced from the equivalent linear frequency modulation pulses' compression.This expression points out that only the cross-range velocity component of the horizontal velocity contributes to the cross-range resolution.Also the cross-range resolution expressions and the performance of the conventional stripmap operation,squint side-look operation and beam circular-scanning operation are discussed.The cross-range resolution expression based on diving model will provide more general and more accurate reference.

Effect of orbital errors on the geosynchronous circular synthetic aperture radar imaging and interferometric processing

The geosynchronous circular synthetic aperture radar (GEOCSAR) is an innovative SAR system,which can produce high resolution three-dimensional (3D) images and has the potential to provide 3D deformation measurement.With an orbit altitude of approximately 36 000 km,the orbit motion and orbit disturbance effects of GEOCSAR behave differently from those of the conventional spaceborne SAR.In this paper,we analyze the effects of orbit errors on GEOCSAR imaging and interferometric processing.First,we present the GEOCSAR imaging geometry and the orbit errors model based on perturbation analysis.Then,we give the GEOCSAR signal formulation based on imaging geometry,and analyze the effect of the orbit error on the output focused signal.By interferometric processing on the 3D reconstructed images,the relationship between satellite orbit errors and the interferometric phase is deduced.Simulations demonstrate the effects of orbit errors on the GEOCSAR images,interferograms,and the deformations.The conclusions are that the required relative accuracy of orbit estimation should be at centimeter level for GEOCSAR imaging at L-band,and that millimeter-scale accuracy is needed for GEOCSAR interferometric processing.

A statistical distribution texton feature for synthetic aperture radar image classification

We propose a novel statistical distribution texton(s-texton) feature for synthetic aperture radar(SAR) image classification. Motivated by the traditional texton feature, the framework of texture analysis, and the importance of statistical distribution in SAR images, the s-texton feature is developed based on the idea that parameter estimation of the statistical distribution can replace the filtering operation in the traditional texture analysis of SAR images. In the process of extracting the s-texton feature, several strategies are adopted, including pre-processing, spatial gridding, parameter estimation, texton clustering, and histogram statistics. Experimental results on Terra SAR data demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed s-texton feature.

Synthetic aperture radar oil spills detection based on morphological characteristics

In recent years,oil spills in coastal regions have received a lot of public concern for its strong impact on the coastal ecological system.Synthetic aperture radar(SAR)is regarded as one of the most suitable sensors for oil spill monitoring for its wide-area and all-day all-weather surveillance capabilities.However,due to its special imaging mechanism,multiplicative speckle noise and dark patches caused by other physical phenomena always affect the accuracy of oil spill detection.In this work,an oil spill detection method based on dual-threshold segmentation and support vector machine was proposed.Experiments on SAR images illustrated the effectiveness of the proposed method in detecting and tracing oil spill from SAR images.

Evaluation of wave retrieval for Chinese Gaofen-3 synthetic aperture radar

The goal of this study was to investigate the performance of a spectral-transformation wave retrieval algorithm and confirm the accuracy of wave retrieval from C-band Chinese Gaofen-3(GF-3)Synthetic Aperture Radar(SAR)images.More than 200 GF-3 SAR images of the coastal China Sea and the Japan Sea for dates from January to July 2020 were acquired in the Quad-Polarization Strip(QPS)mode.The images had a swath of 30 km and a spatial resolution of 8 m pixel size.They were processed to retrieve Significant Wave Height(SWH),which is simulated from a numerical wave model called Simulating WAves Nearshore(SWAN).The first-guess spectrum is essential to the accuracy of Synthetic Aperture Radar(SAR)wave spectrum retrieval.Therefore,we proposed a wave retrieval scheme combining the theocratic-based Max Planck Institute Algorithm(MPI),a Semi-Parametric Retrieval Algorithm(SPRA),and the Parameterized First-guess Spectrum Method(PFSM),in which a full wave-number spectrum and a non-empirical ocean spectrum proposed by Elfouhaily are applied.The PFSM can be driven using the wind speed without calculating the dominant wave phase speed.Wind speeds were retrieved using a Vertical-Vertical(VV)polarized geophysical model function C-SARMOD2.The proposed algorithm was implemented for all collected SAR images.A comparison of SAR-derived wind speeds with European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts(ECMWF)ERA-5 data showed a 1.95 m/s Root-Mean-Squared Error(RMSE).The comparison of retrieved SWH with SWAN-simulated results demonstrated a 0.47 m RMSE,which is less than the 0.68 m RMSE of SWH when using the PFSM algorithm.

Research progress on geosynchronous synthetic aperture radar

Based on its ability to obtain two-dimensional(2D)high-resolution images in all-time and all-weather conditions,spaceborne synthetic aperture radar(SAR)has become an important remote sensing technique and the study of such systems has entered a period of vigorous development.Advanced imaging modes such as radar interferometry,tomography,and multi-static imaging,have been demonstrated.However,current in-orbit spaceborne SARs,which all operate in low Earth orbits,have relatively long revisit times ranging from several days to dozens of days,restricting their temporal sampling rate.Geosynchronous SAR(GEO SAR)is an active research area because it provides significant new capability,especially its much-improved temporal sampling.This paper reviews the research progress of GEO SAR technologies in detail.Two typical orbit schemes are presented,followed by the corresponding key issues,including system design,echo focusing,main disturbance factors,repeat-track interferometry,etc,inherent to these schemes.Both analysis and solution research of the above key issues are described.GEO SAR concepts involving multiple platforms are described,including the GEO SAR constellation,GEO-LEO/airborne/unmanned aerial vehicle bistatic SAR,and formation flying GEO SAR(FF-GEO SAR).Due to the high potential of FF-GEO SAR for three-dimensional(3D)deformation retrieval and coherence-based SAR tomography(TomoSAR),we have recently carried out some research related to FF-GEO SAR.This research,which is also discussed in this paper,includes developing a formation design method and an improved TomoSAR processing algorithm.It is found that GEO SAR will continue to be an active topic in the aspect of data processing and multi-platform concept in the near future.

Speckle filtering of Synthetic Aperture Radar images using filters with object-size-adapted windows

Speckle degrades the radiometric quality of a Synthetic Aperture Radar(SAR)image.Previous methods for speckle reduction have used a fixedsize window for filtering the entire image.This,however,may not be effective for the entire image,as land covers of different sizes require different filtering windows.In this paper,a novel method is proposed by which each pixel in the image is filtered with a window appropriate for the size of object within it.The real in-phase and the imaginary quadrature components of the SAR images determine the best window size and the pixels in the intensity image are filtered using their own optimal windows.The proposed method is presented for both singleand multi-polarized SAR images,and the results of several common filters that were modified are presented.This approach is applied to two RADARSAT-2 images:one over San Francisco,California,USA and the other over St.John’s,Newfoundland and Labrador,Canada,producing results that were similar to,or outperformed,comparable filters while retaining details and suppressing speckle effectively.While the method was successful for single-look intensity data,it offers great potential for multi-look and amplitude data as well.