Improving SAR tomography performance using efficient sensor configurations

This paper concerns the definition of efficient configurations of acquisition for improving the features of tomographic imaging using a constellation of SAR sensors. MIMO SAR measurements done in monostatic and bistatic configurations permit to enhance the spectral diversity of the acquisition in the vertical direction, yielding higher performance in terms of ambiguity height and resolution. Different cases are investigated, and in particular a configuration with tracks that would reveal ambiguous for systems operating in monostatic mode only, and another one consisting of sparse groups of acquisitions. The validity of the proposed approach is demonstrated using data sets acquired by a versatile multi-channel Ground-Based SAR system, operating in alternating emit-receive mode, over coherent scatterers and distributed volumetric media. © 2011 IEEE.