SAR Image Formation Algorithms on the GPU

ArrayFireArrayFire, Case Studies, CUDA 1 Comment

Since the 1950s Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems have gained extreme popularity in both civilian and military domains due to their all-weather, day-or-night capabilities as well as the ability to render different views of a “target”. However, the raw SAR data (phase-history data) must be preprocessed  since all point targets at each pulse instance are superimposed  and create a complex interference that is not very useful for target location. SAR image formation algorithms compress this target information in range (frequency) and along-track (azimuth) directions to obtain interpretable images. In the paper titled “SAR image formation toolbox for MATLAB®“, Gorham L.A. and Moore L.J. of the Air Force Research Lab discuss the implementation of the matched filter and backprojection image formation …