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Performance limits for Synthetic Aperture Radar.

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/878591· OSTI ID:878591

The performance of a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) system depends on a variety of factors, many which are interdependent in some manner. It is often difficult to ''get your arms around'' the problem of ascertaining achievable performance limits, and yet those limits exist and are dictated by physics, no matter how bright the engineer tasked to generate a system design. This report identifies and explores those limits, and how they depend on hardware system parameters and environmental conditions. Ultimately, this leads to a characterization of parameters that offer optimum performance for the overall SAR system. For example, there are definite optimum frequency bands that depend on weather conditions and range, and minimum radar PRF for a fixed real antenna aperture dimension is independent of frequency. While the information herein is not new to the literature, its collection into a single report hopes to offer some value in reducing the ''seek time''.

Research Organization:
Sandia National Laboratories
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
DOE Contract Number:
AC04-94AL85000
OSTI ID:
878591
Report Number(s):
SAND2006-0821
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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