A method for acquiring images of a scene, from a moving carrier that is equipped with a sensor comprises a step in which images of the scene are acquired during the movement of the carrier, and a step in which the angular direction of the line of sight of the sensor is automatically controlled. The acquisition is carried out: for a first position of the carrier, with automatic control allowing an outward scan, combined with a scan in step-and-stare mode with a biaxial stare micro-movement, of a band of terrain of the scene to be carried out, a first strip of images thus being acquired, and wherein at least one other strip of images of the same zone of terrain is acquired by reiterating these scanning steps for at least one other position of the carrier, each image of another strip being acquired with a preset degree of overlap with the images of the first strip.

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging systems that transmit repeated waveforms based upon pseudonoise sequences to generate SAR imaging data in accordance with various embodiments of the invention are disclosed. A synthetic aperture radar in accordance with one embodiment of the invention includes: a transmitter configured to transmit superchirps, where the superchirp is generated by convolving a kernel with a pseudonoise modulated impulse sequence having a flat power spectrum; a receiver configured to receive backscatters of transmitted superchirps and digitize the received backscatters; and signal processing circuitry configured to perform matched filtering on digitized backscatters.

For synthetic aperture radar (SAR) processing, a SAR receives a plurality of SAR signals. The SAR generates a piecewise approximation of the plurality of SAR signals over a coherent processing interval. The piecewise approximation may mitigate phase reflection components of each SAR signal. The SAR further generates an estimate of the scene from the piecewise approximation.

The present invention concerns a method for performing SAR acquisitions, which comprises performing, in a time division fashion, SAR acquisitions of areas of a swath of earth's surface by means of a SAR system carried by an air or space platform; wherein performing SAR acquisitions in a time division fashion includes contemporaneously acquiring, in each pulse repetition interval, a plurality of areas of the swath that are separated in azimuth; and wherein the areas acquired in T successive pulse repetition intervals form an azimuth-continuous portion of said swath, T being an integer greater than one.

Described is a method for extraction of a region of interest (ROI) from a composite synthetic aperture radar (SAR) phase history data. The method comprising receiving, with a system comprising a processor, the composite SAR phase history data of a plurality of backscattered return signals produced by a SAR system illuminating a scene with a SAR beam. The method also comprises obtaining a location of a first ROI within the scene and extracting from the composite SAR phase history data a first component SAR phase history data corresponding to the ROI at the location of the ROI.

A method of operating a synthetic aperture radar SAR to acquire image data, comprises steering the SAR beam in azimuth with respect to the direction of travel during a first time period to acquire image data for a first area on Earth to be imaged; steering the SAR beam in azimuth during one or more additional time periods to acquire image data for one or more additional areas on Earth to be imaged; and steering the SAR beam in azimuth in a rearward direction with respect to the direction of travel, during a time period including the first and one or more additional time periods, to reduce the speed of travel of the beam with respect to Earth.

In a method and computer system for enhancing resolutions of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) collections across a large search area, each collection may be represented by raw phase history data collected across a scene of the search area., the raw phase history embodied as a plurality of pulses representative of image data. The method includes ingesting a plurality of pulses in the raw phase history from the collection, the plurality of pulses including clean pulses and additional lower quality noisy pulses that have a determined potential value as to stationary or dynamic information on the ground. The method further includes enhancing resolution of the ingested clean and additional lower quality noisy pulses to generate enhanced pulses, and cleaning the enhanced pulses to create a two-dimensional scene of complex, grayscale or colorized pixels in either slant coordinates or ground plane coordinates.

A satellite (140) for operation in orbit around the earth comprises an ADCS (131, FIG. 1) configured for mechanically steering the satellite in the azimuth direction to prolong a dwell time (1105), during which a selected target is visible from the satellite, as the satellite orbits over the target. A processor at the ground station may be configured to process raw SAR data from any of the satellites described here. The raw SAR data may be processed in a number of ways to provide image information including but not limited to forming multilook images, compiling video sequences and colour coding images.

A satellite for operation in orbit around the earth comprises an ADCS configured for mechanically steering the satellite in the azimuth direction to prolong a dwell time, during which a selected target is visible from the satellite, as the satellite orbits over the target. A processor at the ground station may be configured to process raw SAR data from any of the satellites described here. The raw SAR data may be processed in a number of ways to provide image information including but not limited to forming multilook images, compiling video sequences and colour coding images.

The invention concerns a method (1) to detect deformations of, and/or damages to, structures permanently arranged on the earth's surface. In particular, said method (1) comprises: acquiring (11) georeferencing data indicative of geographical reference positions of predefined points of interest of a given structure to be monitored permanently arranged on the earth's surface, wherein said predefined points of interest are representative of a 3D geometry of the given structure without deformations and damages; acquiring (12) a SAR image of an area of the earth's surface where the given structure is arranged, wherein said SAR image is associated with a given reference coordinate system; transforming (13) the geographical reference positions of the predefined points of interest into corresponding expected positions in the given reference coordinate system associated with the acquired SAR image so as to carry out a reprojection of the 3D geometry of the given structure without deformations and damages on the acquired SAR image; identifying (14) in the acquired SAR image the predefined points of interest of the given structure; determining (15) actual positions in the given reference coordinate system associated with the acquired SAR image of the predefined points of interest identified in said SAR image; making a comparison (16) between the expected positions of the predefined points of interest and the corresponding actual positions in the acquired SAR image; and detecting (17) one or more deformations of, and/or one or more damages to, said given structure on the basis of the comparison made.