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Habibi TMP Assetuz2v0k
Habibi TMP Assetuz2v0k
Abstract: This paper addresses the problem of the compensation of the motion errors in an airborne
synthetic aperture radar (SAR). The motion errors are caused by the sensor’s unintended translational and
rotational motion. The motion errors cause amplitude and phase modulation of the echo, thus making the
image defocused and geometrically distorted. A method of estimating the motion error based on the
movement of the line-of-sight unit vector is proposed. The range-Doppler algorithm is used for processing
the SAR raw data. A motion compensation algorithm is also proposed and is applied after the range
compression to compensate for the effective range error in single-step. Effectiveness of the proposed
algorithm is evaluated using the experimental data acquired by Disaster Management SAR system
developed in Space Applications Centre, ISRO, Ahmedabad, India.
Keywords: SAR, line-of-sight, range-Doppler, range compression, translational motion error, rotational
motion error.
estimation of the motion errors. We discuss the motion
1. INTRODUCTION
compensation strategy in section IV and finally, the results
Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is a remote sensing system obtained by SAR data are given in section V.
used to obtain high-resolution images of the Earth. Processing
2. NEED OF MOTION COMPENSATION
of the SAR raw data acquired by the spaceborne and airborne
platforms are well established. But airborne SAR data All standard focusing techniques of SAR raw data assume a
processing requires motion error correction for the generation linear motion of the carrier aircraft maintaining a fixed
of focused amplitude images. All standard SAR raw data antenna beam pointing. However, these conditions are seldom
processing techniques assume a uniform linear motion of the met in the real airborne SAR system. In reality, the sensor
aircraft and a fixed antenna beam pointing. However, these undergoes both translational and rotational motions because
conditions are seldom met in an airborne SAR system. of the atmospheric turbulence, high altitude winds, or other
reasons.
The presence of atmospheric turbulence or high altitude winds
introduce trajectory deviations from the nominal straight The motion errors of the antenna phase center (APC) of a
flight path, as well as attitude and forward velocity variations. SAR system cause amplitude and phase modulation of the
In the SAR terminology, the raw data acquired in these echo and thus degrade the quality of the SAR images. The
conditions are said to be affected by the motion errors. These translational motion error of the APC causes:
motion errors are considered to be space-invariant in this
1) Unequal spatial sampling of the acquired SAR raw data,
paper. Forward velocity variations may be accounted for via
and
the standard re-sampling procedures. Trajectory deviations
and attitude variations are examined in the paper. 2) Target-to-sensor range error, which corresponds to the
phase errors in the SAR signal phase history.
To compensate for the motion errors, flight information must
be available at the raw data processing stage. The flight Fig. 1 shows the effects of the translational motion error. 𝑶𝒐
information in terms of latitude, longitude, altitude, velocity, and 𝑶𝒂 are the positions of the antenna phase centre (APC) in
roll, pitch and yaw is provided by the integrated GPS-INS the nominal and real trajectories at any instant of time 𝑡,
system (IGIS) using an on-board Kalman filter. respectively. 𝑑 is the displacement vector, 𝑻 represents a
Motion compensation techniques that accounted for the generic scene scatterer (target), 𝑟𝑚0 and 𝑟𝑚𝑎 are the target-to-
motion errors during the SAR processing have been proposed sensor distances with respect to the nominal and real
in the past years by the researchers [Kirk (1975), Moreira trajectories, respectively. ECEF (Earth-Centered-Earth-Fixed)
(1994), Carrara et. al (1995) and Fornaro (1999)]. In this frame of reference is considered, X-axis being the direction of
paper, the effect of motion errors is analyzed by evaluating the flight (nominal trajectory).
the change in the spatial position of the boresight LOS unit- We have the following expression for 𝑟𝑚0 and 𝑟𝑚𝑎 :
vector caused by the translational and rotational motion
errors. 𝑟𝑚𝑎 = 𝑟𝑚 0 + 𝛿𝑟 (1)
The paper is organized as follows. In section II, we present The term 𝛿𝑟 is the target-to-sensor range error due to the
the necessity of the motion compensation techniques. In translational motion error of the APC which needs to be
section III, we elucidate the method proposed for the determined.
𝜃 𝜓 X
Y
𝜙
ϑ
Z Δ𝑟𝜙
𝜂𝜓𝜃
Y X
𝛿𝑠𝑞
𝜂𝜙
𝜃 (𝑝𝑖𝑡𝑐ℎ)
𝜂
Fig. 3. Effects of the Euler angles on the LOS unit vector
The term 𝜗 is the look angle for SAR, and it depends on the
target-to-sensor range (R) and altitude (h) of the aircraft. The
look angle can be determined as shown below:
Z
Y 𝜓 (𝑦𝑎𝑤) X 𝜗 = cos−1 ℎ/𝑅 (3)
Roll angle 𝜙 alters the look angle as shown in Fig. 2. The
direction cosine matrix (DCM) for the rotation about the x-
axis, considering the anti-clockwise rotation as positive, is
given as:
1 0 0
𝑇𝑥 = 0 cos 𝜙 − sin 𝜙 (4)
0 sin 𝜙 cos 𝜙
When the aircraft undergoes rolling motion, the LOS unit
vector 𝜂 rotates too, and attains a new spatial position 𝜂𝜙
Fig. 2. Effect of rotational motion error given by the following relationship:
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𝑻′ = 𝑶𝟎 + 𝑟𝑚0
′
⋅ 𝜂𝜙 (21) Fig. 5. Effective range error due to motion errors
(translational and rotational motion errors)
where, the new shifted unit vector 𝜂𝜙 is defined in (6).
Therefore, the range of the target for the actual APC position
is given as: The actual range 𝑅 to the target located at the position 𝑥 is
given as:
′
𝑟𝑚𝑎 = 𝑻′ − 𝑶𝒂 (22)
𝑅= 2 + 𝑥−𝑥
𝑟𝑚𝑎 2 (27)
0
Eq. (22) provides the range considering the translational
motion error and the rolling of the sensor platform. Thus, the Thus, the effective range error 𝛥𝑅 is determined as follows:
range error is given as:
𝛥𝑅 = 𝑅 − 𝑅𝑛 (28)
′ ′
𝛿𝑟 = 𝑟𝑚𝑎 − 𝑟𝑚0 (23)
After simplification, following expression for the effective
3.3 Determination of Effective Range Error due to Motion range error is obtained:
Error
𝛿𝑟 2
The translational motion and rotational motion error of the 𝛥𝑅 = 𝑟𝑚𝑜 1+ + 𝑡𝑎𝑛2 𝛽 − 1 + 𝑡𝑎𝑛2 𝛽 (29)
𝑟𝑚𝑜
APC, both contribute to the range error. The translational
motion error of the sensor and the rolling of the aircraft
For further simplification, refer to Fig. 6 which gives,
directly introduce the range error. Whereas pitching and
yawing of the aircraft introduces squint to the antenna beam, 𝛥𝑅 = 𝛿𝑟 × 𝑐𝑜𝑠 𝛽 (30)
indirectly altering the range. Thus, the effective range error
includes the range error introduced by the translational motion Eq. (30) gives the effective range error due to the translational
error and the rotational motion error. and rotational motion errors. The phase error associated with
the effective range error 𝛥𝑅 is given as [Fornaro et. al
Consider Fig. 5. 𝑥0 represents the location of the target in (2005)]:
zero-Doppler plane while 𝑥 represents the shifted target
location due to the squint angle 𝛽. 𝑅 and 𝑅𝑛 represent the 𝛥𝜙 =
4𝜋
𝛥𝑅 (31)
range to the target location from the real and nominal 𝜆
trajectories, respectively.
This phase error needs to be compensated effectively so as to
The nominal range 𝑅𝑛 is given as: improve the SAR image quality. The motion compensation
algorithm is explained in the next section.
2 + 𝑥−𝑥
𝑅𝑛 = 𝑟𝑚𝑜 2 (24)
0 4. MOTION COMPENSATION ALGORITHM
From the Fig. 5, we have The phase error is compensated in the frequency domain. The
proposed method compensates the phase error, subsequent to
𝑡𝑎𝑛 𝛽 = 𝑥 − 𝑥0 /𝑟𝑚0 (25) the range compression, in a single step. Fig. 7 shows the block
diagram of the motion compensation procedure integrated
which gives,
with the range-Doppler SAR data processing algorithm.
𝑥 − 𝑥0 = 𝑟𝑚0 × 𝑡𝑎𝑛 𝛽 (26)
The range-Doppler algorithm focuses the SAR data by means
The squint angle 𝛽 includes the inherent squint angle 𝜃𝑠𝑞 and of pulse compression [Franceschetti et. al (1999) and Zhao et.
the squint angle introduced due to the pitching and yawing of al (2011)]. Pulse compression refers to the technique of
compressing a long, phase-encoded signal by means of a
the platform 𝛿𝑠𝑞 .
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Chirp Duration 20 𝜇s
Wavelength 0.0561 m
-0.1
Azimuth IFFT -0.2
-0.3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
Time (s)
SLC Image 0.1
Pitch (deg)
0.05
0
Fig. 7. Motion compensation algorithm -0.05
-0.1
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
Time (s)
Range compression is done via matched filtering of the echo 0
Yaw (deg)
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-139.72
-139.74
where 𝑥𝑟 , 𝑦𝑟 , 𝑧𝑟 and 𝑥𝑎 , 𝑦𝑎 , 𝑧𝑎 are the reference and actual
-139.76
ECEF coordinates of the APC, respectively. PRI signifies the
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 pulse repetition time which is the inverse of the PRF.
Time (s)
13.2
Vy (m/s)
13.1 1
deltax (m)
13 -1
12.9
12.8 -3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
-5
Time (s) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
5 Time (s)
Vz (m/s)
4.75 0
deltay (m)
4.5 -20
4.25 -40
4 -60
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
-80
Time (s) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
Time (s)
Fig. 9. Velocity components of the APC in ECEF frame of 30
reference
deltaz (m)
20
10
Fig. 10 presents the horizontal and vertical displacements of 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
the APC. Horizontal displacement is the displacement of the Time (s)
APC in X-Y plane in the ECEF frame of reference while
vertical displacement corresponds to the altitude variations of Fig. 11. Deviations in the position of the APC
the APC.
Horizontal Displacement Vertical Displacement Reference
70 0.1 Actual
2767.59
60 0
Horizontal Displacement (m)
2767.58
Vertical Displacement (m)
-0.1
zECEF (km)
50
2767.57
-0.2
40
-0.3 2767.56
30
Initial Point
-0.4 2767.55
5745.65
20 5745.6 349
-0.5
5745.55 348.5
348
10 5745.5
-0.6 347.5
yECEF (km) 347 xECEF (km)
0 -0.7
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10111213 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10111213
Time (s) Time (s) Fig. 12. Trajectory of the APC in ECEF frame of reference
Fig. 10. Displacements (horizontal and vertical) of the APC Fig. 13 shows the range error introduced due to translational
motion error and rolling error of the aircraft, and the squint
angle due to the pitching and yawing of the aircraft. Since the
In Fig. 11, the deviation of the APC position components in aircraft is continually drifting away from the nominal
the ECEF frame of reference is shown. Deviation in the x- trajectory, range error also continuously increases from zero.
component is insignificant because the velocity in x-direction
is nearly constant. The effective range error caused due to both translational and
The 3D trajectory of the APC in ECEF frame of reference is rotational motion error of the APC is shown in Fig. 14. The
shown in Fig. 12. Assuming the first actual ECEF coordinates effective range error follows the range error due to
of the APC (provided by the IGIS) to be the reference point, translational motion error; because of the low squint angle.
the reference trajectory is generated as shown below: The effective range error is determined from Eqn. 30; which
shows the dependence of the effective range error on range
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-20
-40
-60
Fig. 15. Image processed without motion compensation
-80
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
Time (s)
Squint angle due to rotational motion
-0.011
Squint angle (rad)
-0.012
-0.013
-0.014
-0.015
-0.016
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
Fig. 16. Image processed with motion compensation
Time (s)
Fig. 13. Target-to-sensor range error due to translational ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
motion error and roll error; and squint angle due to rotational
motion error The authors respectfully acknowledge Dr. Tapan Misra of
Space Applications Centre, ISRO, Ahmedabad for providing
the airborne SAR raw data. The authors would like to thank
0
Mr. V. M. Ramanujam of Space Applications Centre, ISRO,
Ahmedabad and Dr. K. P. Ray of SAMEER, IIT Bombay for
-10 their invaluable guidance.
Effective Range Error (m)
REFERENCES
-20
Carrara, W. G., Goodman, R. S. and Majewski, R. M. (1995).
-30
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-40 Cumming, I. G. and Wong, F. H. (2005). “Digital Processing
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Implementations”, Artech House.
-50
Fornaro, G. (1999). “Trajectory Deviations in Airborne SAR:
-60
Analysis and Compensation”, IEEE Transactions on
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Aerospace and Electronics Systems, Vol. 35, No. 3.
Time (s)
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compensation procedure that is applied to reduce the impact Moreira, A. (1994). “Airborne SAR Processing of Highly
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