Implementation of Ground Based Synthetic Aperture Radar Applying Agile Methodology

This paper presents the implementation and experimental results of a Ground-Based Synthetic Aperture Radar (GB-SAR) system in the C-band, using agile methodologies for hardware and software development. The system, composed of a vector network analyzer (VNA), horn antennas, a linear rail, control and image processing software, was developed over a period of six months, achieving sub-metric resolution SAR images. The work discusses the agile methodology applied and mentions the main radar parameters, the characteristics of the hardware and control software, the SAR image formation algorithm, and the system's calibration and characterization measurements. Additionally, SAR images obtained from field capture tests are presented. This work represents the first minimum viable product (MVP) on the path towards the development of a constellation of low Earth orbit SAR microsatellites for Earth observation.