Two-dimensional and full polarimetric imaging by a synthetic aperture FM-CW radar

This paper applies the principle of radar polarimetry to a synthetic aperture frequency-modulated continuous wave (FM-CW) radar and presents results based on two-dimensional (2-D) full polarimetric imaging. It is shown that the polarimetric target reflection coefficients obtained by the synthetic aperture FM-CW radar are elements of a Sinclair scattering matrix, although the coefficients are derived from a wide band signal. Using the scattering matrix optimization procedure, a 2D polarimetric imaging experiment (including Co-Pol maximum, minimum, span, and phase imaging) of an orthogonally placed linear target set was successfully carried out in the laboratory. This result demonstrates the validity of S-band (8.2-9.2 GHz) FM-CW radar polarimetry, and it presents a demonstration of a full polarimetric 2-D FM-CW imaging radar system.