A tool for bistatic SAR geometry determinations Original Research Article

The geometry of wide-angle bistatic Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is somewhat more complex than that of conventional Synthetic Aperture Radar because the transmitter and receiver are displaced considerably. Constant bistatic range surfaces form ellipsoids, with the transmitter and receiver located at the two foci. These ellipsoids of constant bistatic range intersect the earthʹs surface in a series of ellipse-like contours. Constant Doppler lines intersect the range ellipses and allow, under special circumstances, a simple orthogonal basis for processing and analysis. This paper introduces a simple tool, developed in MatLab® and C++, that uses RADARSAT-1 as a satellite illuminator and a tower-based receiver. Actual orbit parameters and data from RADARSAT-1 are used in the simulation of the bistatic geometry and scattering.