ANALYSIS OF FORMATION GEOMETRIES FOR MULTISTATIC SAR INTERFEROMETRY AND TOMOGRAPHY

This paper analyzes relative orbit design for multi-satellite radar missions aimed at multistatic SAR tomography. To this end, formation requirements and performance parameters are derived by adapting existing models for SAR tomography to single pass techniques. Then, relative trajectory designed is carried out on the basis of an analytical relative motion model including secular J2 effects. By properly scaling the differences in orbital parameters, different formation geometries enable uniform sampling of the effective baseline along the whole orbit. The difference among the possible choices lies in latitude coverage, formation stability, and collision avoidance aspects. A numerical example of relative trajectory design is discussed considering L-band as operating frequency. In particular, achievable height resolution and unambiguous height along the orbit are pointed out for a multi-cartwheel, a multi-pendulum, and a multi-helix formation.