Understanding Synthetic Aperture Radar Images

Written for SAR system designers and remote sensing specialists, this practical reference shows you how to produce higher quality SAR images using data-driven algorithms, and how to apply powerful new techniques to measure and analyze SAR image content.

The book describes how SAR imagery is formed, how SAR processing affects image properties, and gives you specific guidance in selecting and applying today's most sophisticated analytical techniques. By helping you to quickly assess which components of an SAR image should be measured, the book enables you to devote more time and energy to the real task of image interpretation and analysis.

About the Authors

Chris Oliver--After earning a degree in physics from Worcester College, Oxford, Chris Oliver conducted his doctoral research into low-energy nuclear structure at Liverpool University. In 1967, he joined the photon statistics group at the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment (RSRE), Malvern [later the Defence Research Agency (DRA) and now the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA)]. He was one of the joint inventors of the technique of single-clipped photon-correlation spectroscopy exploited in the Malvern Correlator, for which he won the MacRobert Award for Engineering Achievement in 1977.

Chris Oliver led a section at the DERA (Malvern) undertaking long-term research on the extraction and processing of information from SAR images since 1981; from 1991 to 2000, he took on a consultancy role to free him from management responsibilities. He was appointed Visiting Professor of Physics at King's London College in 1987. In 1996, he was invited to become a Visiting Professor at "La Sapiensa," the University of Rome, in 1999 and 2001.

Chris Oliver has published in excess of 100 papers and holds 7 patents, many in both Europe and the United States in addition to the United Kingdom. His academy status was recognized within the DERA, where he was an Individual Merit Deputy Chief Scientific Officer. In 2000, he was appointed a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in Her Britannic Majesty the Queen's Birthday Honors as recognition of his contribution to radar. Since his retirement, Chris has set up InfoSAR Ltd., which offers consultancy and training in SAR exploitation. The company has produced a SAR image interpretation software suite, InfoPACK, which exploits and extends the principles described in this book and offers significantly greater sensitivity than any others.

Shaun Quegan--Shaun Quegan received his BA in mathematics in 1970 and M.Sc. in mathematical statistics in 1972, both from the University of Warwick. After teaching for several years (and running a large mathematics department) an ever-growing interest in physics led him to undertake research into large-scale modeling of the ionosphere and upper atmosphere at the University of Sheffield, leading to a Ph.D. in 1982. He then joined Marconi Research Centre as a research scientist, becoming Remote Sensing Applications Group Chief in 1984. This was a fortunate opportunity to work with an excellent team involved in SAR research, from which many fruitful long-term collaborations sprung, including that with Chris Oliver. The offer of a post at the University of Sheffield in 1986 provided a chance to build an academic SAR research group, whose activities have flourished. In 1993 he was awarded a professorship, in the same year helping to instigate the Sheffield Centre for Earth Observation Science and becoming its first director. In this role he plays a central part in coordinating and developing the wide range of remote sensing skills in the University and in bringing them to bear on environmental science and application problems.