The "myth" of the minimum SAR antenna area constraint

A design constraint traceable to the early days of spaceborne synthetic ape rture radar (SAR) is known as the minimum antenna area constraint for SAR. In this paper, it is confirmed that this constraint strictly applies only t o the case in which both the best possible resolution and the widest possib le swath are the design goals, SAR antennas with area smaller than the cons traint allows are shown to he possible, have been used on spaceborne SAR mi ssions in the past, and should permit further, lower-cost SAR missions in t he future.