合成孔径雷达星座发展综述

自1978年第一颗星载SAR——Seasat-A发射以来,世界主要航天大国相继发射了多颗SAR卫星。几十年来,星载SAR传感器的性能不断提高,向着高分辨率、多极化、多模式和星座化等趋势发展。德国和意大利分别完成了SAR-Lupe(5颗)和COSMO-Sky Med(4颗)SAR卫星星座的布署,用于军事侦察或军民两用,欧空局和加拿大也正在积极开发SAR星座任务,甚至一些商业公司也开始研发小卫星SAR星座。SAR星座能够显著提高对地观测能力,既可以通过编队飞行进行双/多站、多角度或干涉成像,还可以通过多星组网大大缩短重访周期,满足对重点区域的密集观测需求。在SAR传感器和卫星平台都越来越小型化、低成本的背景下,星座组网正成为SAR对地观测发展的主要方向之一。

Trend Analysis of SAR Constellation

Since the first satellite-based SAR-Seasat-A launched in 1978, the major astronomical countries have launched many SAR satellites successively. For decades, the property of spaceborne SAR sensors has been increasing towards high resolution, multi-polarization, multi-mode and constellation. Germany and Italy have respectively deployed the satellite constellations of SAR-Lupe (5 satellites) and COSMO-SkyMed (4 satellites), which are used for military reconnaissance and civil applications. The ESA and Canada are actively developing SAR constellationmissions, and even some commercial companies have begun to develop small satellites SAR constellation. SAR constellation can improve the ability to observe the earth significantly, both through the formation of flight for double/multi-station, multi-angle or interference imaging, but also through the multi-satellites network greatly shorten the re-visit cycle to meet key areas of intensive observations. With SAR sensors and satellite platforms are increasing miniaturization and low cost, constellation network is becoming one of the main directions for the development of SAR ground observation.