A method for visualizing the effects of uncompensated motion on SAR azimuth resolution

Results from a study of azimuth resolution of a generic synthetic aperture radar under conditions of uncompensated motion errors are presented. The approach is based on summing the phasors of pulse returns and establishing a criterion for defining the azimuth resolution. The advantage of this technique is that it considers the performance of the synthetic aperture radar on a pulse-to-pulse basis, thus affording more flexibility than would a more simplistic approach. The azimuth resolution is presented for different types of motion errors in two-dimensional and three-dimensional graphic plots for both focused and unfocused modes of operation.