The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Oct. 31, 1995
Filed:
Oct. 25, 1993
Robert T Frankot, Van Nuys, CA (US);
Hughes Aircraft Company, Los Angeles, CA (US);
Abstract
The present invention is an interferometric SAR system and processing method that combines multi-pass SAR interferometry with dual-antenna SAR interferometry to obtain elevation maps with accuracy unobtainable by either method alone. A single pass of the dual-antenna system provides coarse elevation maps. High accuracy maps are obtained through additional passes, with accuracy determined by the number of passes. The processing method combines the acquired data to provide a calibrated, high precision, low ambiguity elevation map, using approximate least-squares and maximum-likelihood processing methods. The present dual-antenna SAR interferometer collects two complex SAR images from slightly different elevation angles on a single pass using two antennas on the same platform. The present invention provides calibrated maps that have coarse precision but are nearly unambiguous because of the small interferometer baseline. The multi-pass method collects two or more complex images using multiple passes of a radar platform with each antenna. Alone, the multipass method provides much more precise, but ambiguous and uncalibrated, elevation maps. However, the present invention combines the dual-antenna and multi-pass techniques to provide unambiguous and highly precise maps.