Title
On the Capabilities of the Italian Airborne FMCW AXIS InSAR System.
Abstract
Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) systems are gaining increasing interest within the remote sensing community due to their operational flexibility and observation capabilities. Among these systems, those exploiting the Frequency-Modulated Continuous-Wave (FMCW) technology are compact, lightweight, and comparatively low cost. For these reasons, they are becoming very attractive, since they can be easily mounted onboard ever-smaller and highly flexible aerial platforms, like helicopters or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). In this work, we present the imaging and topographic capabilities of a novel Italian airborne SAR system developed in the frame of cooperation between a public research institute (IREA-CNR) and a private company (Elettra Microwave S.r.l.). The system, which is named AXIS (standing for Airborne X-band Interferometric SAR), is based on FMCW technology and is equipped with a single-pass interferometric layout. In the work we first provide a description of the AXIS system. Then, we describe the acquisition campaign carried out in April 2018, just after the system completion. Finally, we perform an analysis of the radar data acquired during the campaign, by presenting a quantitative assessment of the quality of the SLC (Single Look Complex) SAR images and the interferometric products achievable through the system. The overall analysis aims at providing first reference values for future research and operational activities that will be conducted with this sensor.
Year
DOI
Venue
2020
10.3390/rs12030539
REMOTE SENSING
Keywords
Field
DocType
Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR),Airborne SAR,SAR Interferometry,Digital Elevation Model (DEM),Frequency-Modulated Continuous-Wave (FMCW)
Interferometric synthetic aperture radar,Remote sensing,Geology
Journal
Volume
Issue
Citations 
12
3
0
PageRank 
References 
Authors
0.34
0
6
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Carmen Esposito1185.37
Antonio Natale201.01
Gianfranco Palmese351.98
P. Berardino473085.58
Riccardo Lanari519950.16
Stefano Perna64812.58