DESIGN OF A MONOPULSE SAR SYSTEM FOR THE DETERMINATION OF ELEVATION ANGLES

Terrain height variations in mountainous areas cause problems in the r adiometric correction of SAR images. We propose a novel SAR system whi ch exploits the monopulse principle to determine the elevation angle a nd thus the height at the different parts of the image. From the ratio s of images radiometrically modulated by the difference and sum antenn a pattern in cross-track direction, we can calculate the appropriate e levation angle at any point in the image. In this paper, we present de sign considerations for an array antenna for DLR's airborne X-Band SAR system and give estimates of the error due to system noise and azimut h ambiguities as well as the expected performance and precision in top ographic mapping.