MULTI-APERTURE ALONG-TRACK INTERFEROMETRIC (MAATI) SAR FOR VELOCITY VECTOR ESTIMATION OF OCEAN CURRENTS USING CONVENTIONAL ATI SAR DATA

Abstract

The range velocity component is computed from the standard ATI algorithm. Estimation of the direction of the velocity vector is made by applying multi/sub-look processing to the azimuth components of the conventional ATI SAR raw data. This procedure yields a forward- and backward-looking interferograms, from which the corresponding velocity components are computed, and the direction can be estimated from these velocity components or directly from interferometric phases. The theory is tested with numerical simulation, resulting in good agreement. The principle of MA-ATI SAR is analogous to the multi aperture interferometry (MAI) for the measurements of two-dimensional surface deformation by cross-track interferometric SAR, and thus the proposed MA-ATI SAR is also considered as feasible.procedure yields a forward- and backward-looking interferograms, from which the corresponding velocity components are computed, and the direction can be estimated from these velocity components or directly from interferometric phases. The theory is tested with numerical simulation, resulting in good agreement. The principle of MA-ATI SAR is analogous to the multi aperture interferometry (MAI) for the measurements of two-dimensional surface deformation by cross-track interferometric SAR, and thus the proposed MA-ATI SAR is also considered as feasible.