Synchronization and Processing in the HITCHHIKER Bistatic SAR Experiment

The work presented in this paper describes the signal processing of raw data measured by the HITCHHIKER bistatic radar system which is the final step toward open publication of the raw radar data acquired in the hybrid (spaceborne/stationary) experiments in cooperation with the TerraSAR-X/TanDEM-X system. During the preprocessing, the data stored by the sensor are transformed to a generic dataset which can be described by a generalized signal model. Therefore, the synchronization of transmitter and receiver, the position preprocessing, and the pulse compression is performed in this step. Furthermore, the preprocessed radar data are focused in spatial domain yielding synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images in bistatic radar coordinates. Finally, the structure and format of the datasets are described along with the procedure to request them.