Artefact analysis of multistatic three-dimensional SAR imaging with two linear arrays

Abstract

In recent years, radar technology has seen much improvement, making multistatic Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) sensing a realistic possibility, for example in satellite constellations or unmanned aircraft systems. With such systems, there then comes the requirement to investigate useful multistatic SAR geometries. We provide a microlocal analysis of a multistatic data acquisition geometry for three-dimensional SAR imaging, where the transmitters and receivers effectively constitute two linear arrays, which survey a region of interest (ROI). Using microlocal techniques, we show how the data acquisition geometry influences whether artefacts are likely to be present in the resultant image and how they can be avoided. Our main contribution is to provide a time-gating condition on the data which ensures that artefacts are not present in the ROI. As an independent verification, we provide several numerical simulations which follow a time-independent formulation.