SYNTHETIC APERTURE RADAR DATA REDUCTION FOR SATELLITES

- 28 -Abstract The invention relates to a preprocessing technique for synthetic radar images. An embodiment of a method is described for preprocessing synthetic aperture radar images, wherein the method comprises: receiving range-compressed radar data generated from raw radar image data on-board a satellite or an airborne vehicle; generating a preliminary SAR image by performing a pre-focusing on the range-compressed radar data; extracting image subsectors from the preliminary SAR image; transmitting the extracted image subsectors to an on-ground portion; reconstructing the range-compressed radar data pertaining to the extracted image subsectors; and making the range-compressed radar data pertaining to the extracted image subsectors available for a Nominal synthetic aperture radar processor, wherein the Nominal synthetic aperture radar processor is configured to generate a focused SAR image having a nominal value of image resolution that is higher than the resolution of the preliminary SAR image. 2 0 (Fig. 10) 104 Date Recue/Date Received 2021-05-11