Active microwave systems

Altimeters, scatterometers and imaging radars with real and synthetic apertures are considered with respect to physical and technical basics, applications, radar principles and basic equations. The signal to noise ratio and clutter to noise ratio, azimuth resolution and maximum synthetic aperture length are compared for different radar types, and target characteristics are discussed. It is found that a complete description can only be given if all copolar and crosspolar amplitudes and respective phases of the radar signal are known. The upper frequency is also discussed, with emphasis on developing operational remote sensing satellites with multifrequency and multipolarization high resolution radars, synthetic aperture radars, and target identification and classification capability.