A COMPARISON OF SEVERAL ALGORITHMS FOR SAR RAW DATA-COMPRESSION

This paper proposes new algorithms for synthetic aperture radar (SAR) raw data compression and compares the resulting image quality with the quality achieved by commonly used methods. The compression is carried out in time and frequency domain, with statistic, crisp, and fuzzy me thods. The algorithms in time domain lead to high resolution and a goo d signal-to-noise ratio, but they do not optimize the performance of t he compression according to the frequency envelope of the signal power in both range and azimuth directions. The hardware requirements for t he compression methods in the frequency domain are significant, but a higher performance is obtained. Even with a data rate of 3 bits/sample , a satisfactory phase accuracy is achieved which is an essential para meter for polarimetric and interferometric applications. Preliminary a nalysis concerning the suitability of the proposed algorithms for diff erent SAR applications shows that the compression ratio should be adap tively selected according to the specific application.