Experiments with Small UAS to Support SAR Tomographic Mission Formulation

The advent of smaller SAR satellites and cheaper access to space is bringing the notion of a multistatic SAR constellation into the realm of feasibility. Researchers at JPL are studying a Distributed Aperture Radar Tomographic Sensors (DARTS) mission concept intended to measure Earth's surface topography and vegetation using TomoSAR techniques. This paper describes progress on the airborne testbed for the DARTS study. The testbed is the union of a software-defined radio that implements a radar and synchronization link together with a small uninhabited aerial system (sUAS) that serves as a platform with precise control of the observation geometry. Initial experiments have demonstrated successful multi-sensor synchronization as well as acquisition and processing of monostatic SAR imagery.