Pre-processing SAR image stream to facilitate compression for transport on bandwidth-limited-link

DWPI Title: Aircraft-mounted apparatus for processing a sequence of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) image frames to facilitate compression for transport on bandwidth-limited link, by equalizing range and azimuth extents across input SAR images
Abstract: Pre-processing is applied to a raw VideoSAR (or similar near-video rate) product to transform the image frame sequence into a product that resembles more closely the type of product for which conventional video codecs are designed, while sufficiently maintaining utility and visual quality of the product delivered by the codec.
Use: Aircraft-mounted apparatus for processing a sequence of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) image frames to facilitate compression for transport on bandwidth-limited link.
Advantage: Commercial-off-the-shelf codecs with spatial and temporal compression capabilities can be used to compress highly data intensive image streams (e.g., VideoSAR products or SAR derivative products) for transmission on relatively low capacity communication links, with adequate image quality at the receiver.
Novelty: The apparatus processes an input sequence of input SAR image frames to produce processed image frames in an output sequence. The processing includes: cropping at least one of the input SAR images to equalize range and azimuth extents across the input SAR images, and rotating at least one of the input SAR images to a rotational orientation that is shared with at least one other input SAR image, the rotational orientation being relative to a center of a scene captured in the input SAR image frames.
Filed: 5/25/2011
Application Number: US13115654A
Tech ID: SD 11821.0
This invention was made with Government support under Contract No. DE-NA0003525 awarded by the United States Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration. The Government has certain rights in the invention.
Data from Derwent World Patents Index, provided by Clarivate
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