AN IMPROVEDSINGLEFLIGHT TECHNIQUEFOR RADAR STEREO

An improvedtechniquefor obtain- ing stereo radar image pairs is described. The techniqueuses a unique combinationof two differentradar beam pattern characteristics. The resultingstereo radar images are illumi- nated from very nearly the same aircraftpo- sitionwhich resultsin radar shadow and back- scatter characteristicswhich are very simi- lar and in improvedimageregistrationpossi- bilities. The reductionin illuminationan- gle and aircraftpositiondifferencesis shown to be nearly an order of magnitudeor more when comparedwith a previouslyproposed singleflighttechniquewhich used two verti- cal fan beam patternsat differentazimuth angles. As a related sidelightit is shown that this previoustechniquerequlresthe two fan beam patterns to generateparallaxon the imagesand thus can not be implementedwith syntheticarrays squintedat two different squintangles.