Principles of synthetic aperture radar

Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is an active microwave imaging method. It op erates independently of Sun illumination and cloud coverage. Current spaceb orne systems use wavelengths of 3 to 25 cm and achieve resolutions of 10 to 50 m. The paper attempts to explain the basic SAR imaging principles using a minimum of mathematics. Emphasis is put on the particular properties of SAR images that should be understood before interpreting these data.