Principles Of Synthetic Aperture Radar

Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is an active microwave imaging method.It operates independently of Sun illumination and cloud coverage. Currentspaceborne systems use wavelengths of 3 to 25 cm and achieve resolutionsof 10 to 50 m. The paper attempts to explain the basic SAR imaging principlesusing a minimum of mathematics. Emphasis is put on the particular propertiesof SAR images that should be understood before interpreting these data.