Preliminary performance analysis and design for a distributed P-band synthetic aperture radar

This paper focuses on a new concept for spaceborne P-band radar implementation, that is distributed SAR based on formation flying. This approach can in principle allow to overcome physical constraints that limit the performance of monolithic SARs, leading in the P-band case to huge antennas and hard swath/resolution trade-offs. The proposed SAR is based on a larger transmitting satellite and a set of light-weight receiving-only platforms. This architecture also allows for multi-mission capabilities. In particular, in the P-band case forests observation and biomass estimation can be in theory combined with interferometric ice sounding. Payload concept is clarified, and a preliminary performance analysis in terms of ambiguity and coverage is proposed.