MIMO-VSAR: A high resolution radar system for imaging moving scenes

The Velocity SAR (VSAR) is a SAR-based sensor system for high resolution imaging of moving scenes such as the ocean surface. VSAR utilizes data collected by a multi-element SAR system, to extract information not only about the radar reflectivity of the observed area, but also about the radial velocity of the scatterers in each pixel. This is accomplished by making use of the phase information contained in multiple SAR images, and not just the magnitude information as in conventional SAR. Using this velocity information, the VSAR is able to compensate for the velocity distortion inherent in conventional SAR. MIMO-VSAR is an extension of VSAR employing multiple transmit antennas using orthogonal waveforms. The operating principle and basic design tradeoffs of MIMO-VSAR are presented herein.