Abstract :
With the advent of wide-area motion imagery (WAMI) sensors, it has become possible to provide situational awareness for areas of interest (AOls) that approach city size. However, these sensors typically operate at optical wavelengths, making them susceptible to interruptions of coverage due to weather events and loss of daylight, thus motivating calls for an all-weather RF adjunct. Similar to the WAMI sensors, a staring, wide-area synthetic aperture radar (SAR) seeks to provide uninterrupted surveillance of a city-sized AOI, allowing perpetual observation of all stationary and moving objects. Development of this capability requires overcoming two overarching technical challenges: (1) real-time synthetic aperture imaging of wide areas (up to 20-km in diameter) with update rates commensurate with WAMI sensors and (2) detection/tracking/recognition of moving and stationary vehicles and individuals with a single-moded, multiple-phase center radar. This special issue will address recent advances in hardware, software, and algorithmic solutions to the challenges posed by wide-area and staring synthetic aperture radar.
