Spaceborne along-track SAR interferometry: performance analysis andmission scenarios

A system study of a spaceborne along-track synthetic aperture radar (SAR) interferometer is presented. This sensor has been successfully experienced for detecting moving targets by using only airborne installations. Several key issues must be addressed when spaceborne configurations are envisaged. To this end, a quantitative evaluation of system performance and measurement accuracy has been conducted. First, the identification of possible space configurations has been accomplished. In particular, the two antennas can operate on a single satellite or they can be carried along appropriate trajectories by two spacecrafts. Then, an error budget of radial velocity measurement accuracy has been performed. Finally, two possible mission scenarios are dealt in details, and numerical results are reported     

Attitude and antenna pointing design of bistatic radar formations

Spaceborne bistatic radar observations allow original scientific applications to be carried out. Furthermore, assuming transmitting and receiving antennas operating on separated platforms, key design issues relevant to formation flying must be solved. Mathematical models are presented for computation of attitude and pointing angles. Main design constraint is the capability of maintaining swath overlap, but selected strategy also depends on the cost of spacecraft attitude maneuvering or antenna beam electronic steering. The model has been applied considering a large transmitting/receiving primary mission and a receiving-only small satellite. In this case antenna steering was preferred. Finally, if the passive antenna is smaller than the active one, overlap maintenance is simplified, obviating the need for yaw rotations.     

Design of an end-to-end demonstration mission of a Formation-Flying Synthetic Aperture Radar (FF-SAR) based on microsatellites

The paper focuses on space system design aspects related to an end-to-end demonstration mission, aiming at showing the feasibility of a Formation Flying Synthetic Aperture Radar (FF-SAR) with microsatellite class platforms (~100 kg). Trajectory design approaches that can fulfil payload requirements are addressed to enable selected FF-SAR applications. The exploitation of these applications relies on suitable combinations of FF-SAR techniques like Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) enhancement, High-Resolution Wide Swath (HRWS) SAR imaging, and Coherence Resolution Enhancement (CRE). In this framework, a cluster of 3 micro-satellites, working in X-band, flying in a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) close-formation, has been designed as a candidate end-to-end system demonstration mission. One satellite embarks a Transmitting-Receiving (Tx/Rx) radar, i.e. it is a monostatic SAR. The other two satellites are Receiving-only platforms. Critical design aspects related to spacecraft subsystems and formation-flying analysis are addressed to confirm the technical feasibility of the spaceborne distributed system implementing the FF-SAR principle.     

Performance of spaceborne bistatic synthetic aperture radar

This paper reports on a model developed for evaluating major system performance of a spaceborne bistatic synthetic aperture radar (SAR) for remote sensing applications. The procedure accounts for formation flying aspects. It is particularly aimed at comparison of monostatic and bistatic cases, and, as a test case, it is applied to study a novel configuration, based on a small satellite equipped with a receiving-only antenna orbiting in tandem with a large, noncooperative transmitting spacecraft, the Italian COSMO-SkyMed mission. Numerical results and plots show the effectiveness of the procedure as a mission design tool and put in evidence key issues and characteristics of the proposed spaceborne bistatic formation.