final Flashcards
how does radar work?
- active form of RS
- measured as a function of the radar pulse travel time
- has to do w the physical surface of earth
radar principles
- firing radar beams - thru pulse generator
- need to catch it and process
- looking at point cloud, not an average of what is going on between bounce points
- atmosphere has no noticeable effect
radar components
pulse generator, transmitter, duplexer, receiver, recorder, post-processing
benefits of radar
- all-time/all-weather capability
- info on roughness at a human scale
- deeper penetration of soil
- vegetation may or may not be a concern
limitations of radar
- expensive
- image data is complex and hard to interpret
- little to no info on surface composition
radar bands
- pulses are sent and received in discrete wavelength bands (Ka, C, L)
passive radar collection
- senses the naturally available microwave energy within their field of view
- energy emitted is a function of the dielectric constant and temp
- dielectric constant: the ratio of a material’s ability to store electric potential to the free space’s ability to store electric potential
– greater for things w higher moisture contenta
active radar collection
what is resolution a function of?
- controls the source and data collection
- resolution is a function of antenna length and pulse duration
SLAR (side looking airborne radar)
- good for regional studies
- side-looking geometry affects how the signal interacts with the surface
– causes geometric distortions
ground range
Rg
distance away from the nadir point (perpendicular to the flight direction)
slant range
Rs
distance along the beam path
azimuth
distance along the flight direction
look angle
(Y)
angle from the vertical to the beam
depression angle
theta
complement to the look angle
swath width
illuminated surface of the ground
pulse duration
T
time of the pulse
determines how large the antenna needs to be because the antenna needs to receive pulses sent far away while the ship keeps moving
incidence angle
angle from vertical of the ground and the beam
background of radar images
- backscatter is a function of the statistical variation of the random heights from the surface
- larger wavelengths are not affected by a small statistical surface roughness (also incidence angle)
corner reflector
an object on the surface with a geometry with respect to the incident energy such that all energy is returned to the antenna (“perfect reflector)
flat perfect reflector
bounce off in the same direction
appears dark bc there is no information
rayleigh criteria
relate approximate surface roughness to amount of backscatter
smooth: H <λ/(8sinθ) - shows dark
rough: H > λ/(4.4sinθ) - shows light
radar polarization
- SLAR systems can commonly transmit and receive in different polarization planes
- interaction w surface features can depolarize the beam
- horizontal send and receive is the strongest bc most things have vertical orientation (therefore, they scatter back most of the energy)
radar pulse geometry
- near-range is received first and then the far-range
- all backscatter within any given zone of the swath width parallel to the azimuth direction is received at the same time
- radar data is measured in the slant range direction
- it is re-projected onto the ground range direction (Rg)
range direction (w equation)
ground range distance?
determines the position from a measurement of the travel time from the antenna to the surface (assuming a fixed depression angle)
Rg = Rs * cosθ
Rg = ((cT)/ 2) cosθ
Rs = slant range distance θ = depression angle