1. General introduction
Spaceborne SAR imaging is an important method for earth observations from space with such characteristics as all-time, all-weather, high-resolution, large image-width, and global observation, and thus plays a significant role in the national economy and applications in related fields. As the spaceborne SAR technology involves multiple subjects and the structure is quite complex, the development of this technology is extremely difficult and its development level reflects the overall scientific and technological strength of a country. Institute of Electronics started the pre-research of spaceborne SAR in the early 90s of last century and launched the development officially in 1999. After seven-year efforts, the first spaceborne SAR of China has been developed successfully, filling the blank in this field and opening up a new milestone in China’s space remote sensing. In addition, research and development on the Environment and Disaster Monitoring Satellite (HJ-1-C) and the payload of high-resolution small-scale microwave imaging SAR for radar satellites were also launched. To be in accordance with future national major development directions and mission requirements of spaceborne SAR, the total deployment of pre-research is implemented, the contents of which include high-resolution, wide-swath, multi-polarization, interference and SAR / GMTI, etc.
2. Recent achievements
(1) China's first spaceborne SAR system
(2) HJ-1-C satellite SAR system
(3) A new generation of high-resolution SAR satellite system
(4) Spaceborne maritime surveillance wide SAR system
(5) 1-meter C-band multi-polarization SAR system