Triad National Security, LLC

Other

Bruce Carlsten

David Matthew Thompson

David A Palmer

Stephen Judd

Kimberley Nichols

SAR imaging may be performed using a short-pulse laser to generate range-resolved reflection data. A short-pulse laser may be advantageous over other techniques to acquire the range-resolved data, especially in cases with very distant targets or other cases with low signal-to-noise ratio information, because a short-pulse laser can determine the range to individual reflectors with a single photon return and is more adaptable to a photon-starved inversion algorithm. This technique can be used with both mono-static and bi-static SAR configurations.

Bi-static and mono-static synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging using a short-pulse laser

SAR imaging may be performed with range-resolved reflection data, where a spread-spectrum signal, such as a code division multiple access (CDMA) signal, is transmitted instead of a simple frequency chirp. The reflected spread-spectrum signal may be analyzed to gather range-resolved reflection data. Range-resolved reflection data may be gathered at each angular view. This data may be used to construct a more accurate approximation of the Fourier transform of the desired image than can be done by a conventional SAR approach. The image may be reconstructed from this Fourier transform using Fourier inversion techniques similar to those used in conventional SAR approaches. The range-resolved reflection scheme generally requires somewhat more processing to recover the image as compared with conventional SAR systems, but provides a significantly more stable image with less degradation from effects that plague conventional SAR systems. This can eliminate the need for phase coherency altogether and also eliminate 'phase drift,' which leads to image distortion. This may be especially well suited for high resolution imaging of relatively large targets.

Synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) imaging with range-resolved reflection data

Provided is a klynac including: a klystron input cell configured to form a first resonant circuit; a klystron output cell; and a plurality of linac cells configured to form a second resonant circuit with the klystron output cell.

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Los Alamos, NM, United States of America

Bruce Carlsten