Synthetic Aperture Radar Image Geolocation Using Fiducial Images

Technical Report · Sat Oct 01 04:00:00 EDT 2022

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1890785· OSTI ID:1890785

Doerry, Armin W. ^[1]; Bickel, Douglas L. ^[1]

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1. Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) creates imagery of the earth’s surface from airborne or spaceborne radar platforms. However, the nature of any radar is to geolocate its echo data, i.e., SAR images, relative to its own measured radar location. Acceptable accuracy and precision of such geolocation can be quite difficult to achieve, and is limited by any number of parameters. However, databases of geolocated earth imagery do exist, often using other imaging modalities, with Google Earth being one such example. These can often be much more accurate than what might be achievable by the radar itself. Consequently, SAR images may be aligned to some higher accuracy database, thereby improving the geolocation of features in the SAR image. Examples offer anecdotal evidence of the viability of such an approach.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
• DOE Contract Number: NA0003525
• OSTI ID: 1890785
• Report Number(s): SAND2022--13587; 710499
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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