SAR/MTI radar mapping from ships and ground based vehicles

In this paper, the performance of MTI/SAR radar in ships and ground vehicle applications is analysed. If a single antenna beam scans a sector, significant degradations in MTI sensitivity and SAR resolution occurs due to the reduced dwell time on target. Full performance can be achieved by using an ESA antenna with multiple beam generation, or high speed scanning. SAR needs accurate phase error compensation by inertial measurements or auto-focusing due to the non-linear movement path of the antenna.