Relationship Between Mirrored Aperture Synthesis Radiometers and Aperture Synthesis Radiometers

The mirrored aperture synthesis radiometer (MASR) has been proposed as a new technique for high-resolution observation. Compared with ASRs, MASRs have the advantage of lower system complexity. However, the relationship between MASRs and ASRs has not been studied. In order to thoroughly study MASRs, it is necessary to establish the relationship between MASRs and ASRs. In this letter, the array factor of 1-D MASRs in the discrete cosine transform domain (DCT-domain) is defined. The reconstructed image for a 1-D MASR is a symmetric convolution of the observed brightness temperature distribution and the defined array factor in the DCT domain. Since a symmetric convolution can be turned into a linear convolution, the relationship between 1-D MASRs and 1-D ASRs can be established. A 1-D MASR is equivalent to a 1-D ASR that has a mirrored window. Additionally, for the equivalent 1-D ASR, its observed scene is a symmetrically extended real scene. This established relationship is validated by the simulation results. In practical applications, a MASR can be understood as an ASR.