A multiprocessing framework for SAR image processing

This paper introduces a framework developed for image processing of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images. It encapsulates features of modern hardware architectures, including symmetric and asymmetric multiprocessing, within an easy and intuitive to use application programming interface (API). The multiprocessing part is designed for unified usage of different architectures reaching from multicore processors to cluster of workstations to grids of clusters. So an application using the framework can be ported from one architecture to another without any changes in the source code. The framework builds the bottom layer of the processing system developed for the German Aerospace Center´s (DLR) new airborne SAR sensor, the F-SAR [1].