CARABAS - an airborne VHF SAR system
- National Defence Research Establishment (FOA), Linkopineg (Sweden); and others
There is an increasing interest in imaging radar systems operating at low frequencies, Examples of civilian and military applications are detection of stealth-designed man-made objects, targets hidden under foliage, biomass estimation, and penetration into glaciers or ground. CARABAS (Coherent All Radio Band Sensing) is a new airborne SAR system developed by FOA. It is designed for operation in the lowest part of the VHF band (20-90 NHz), using horizontal polarisation. This frequency region gives the system a good ability to penetrate vegetation and to some extent ground. CARABAS is the first known SAR sensor with a capability of diffraction limited imaging, i.e. a resolution in magnitude of the adopted wavelengths. A Sabreliner business jet aircraft is used as the airborne platform. Critical parts in the development have been the antenna system, the receiver and the processing algorithms. Based upon the experiences gained with CARABAS I a major system upgrade is now taking place. The new CARABAS II system is scheduled to fly in May 1996. This system is designed to give operational performance while CARABAS I was used to verify the feasibility. The first major field campaigns are planned for the second half of 1996. CARABAS II is jointly developed by FOA and Ericsson Microwave Systems AB in Sweden. This paper will give an overview of the system design and data collected with the current radar system, including some results for forested regions. The achieved system performance will be discussed, with a presentation of the major modifications made in the new CARABAS 11 system. 12 refs., 7 figs., 2 tabs.
- OSTI ID:
- 390846
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-960613-; TRN: 96:004291-0039
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 2. international airborne remote sensing conference and exhibition, San Francisco, CA (United States), 24-27 Jun 1996; Other Information: PBD: 1996; Related Information: Is Part Of Proceedings of the second international airborne remote sensing conference and exhibition: Technology, measurement & analysis. Volume II; PB: 774 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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