Motion compensation of wideband synthetic aperture radar with a new transponder technique

A high resolution synthetic aperture radar (SAR) system called phased array multifunctional imaging radar (PAMIR) is currently under development at FGAN. This system uses a very high bandwidth and performs a coherent integration along a large synthetic aperture. Problems in the area of calibration and motion compensation arise which can´t be solved using common tools like corner reflectors. This paper describes the construction of active transponders which modulate and re-radiate radar pulses, discusses the advantages for calibration and shows how the echoes can be used for motion compensation in the SAR processing.