EE Colloquia: SAR 101 – Intro to Synthetic Aperture Radar

Abstract: This talk will be an introduction to fine-resolution synthetic aperture radar (SAR).  We will discuss fundamental principles of SAR and how relevant collection geometries are specified.  SAR is an active remote sensing technique, meaning that interrogation of the environment is performed using transmitted microwave energy.  We discuss examples of resulting phenomenology that consumers of SAR imagery should be trained to interpret.  Examples of products derived from SAR imagery will be presented along with imagery examples and SAR use cases.

Biography: Bill Correll, Jr. (Senior Member, IEEE) received the B.S. degree from Denison University in 1995, the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Michigan in 1997 and 2002, respectively, all in Mathematics. He was an Intern with the National Security Agency in the summer of 1995 and was a Graduate Student Instructor from 1996 to 2001. He joined Maxar Technologies (formerly Radiant Solutions, MDA Information Systems, General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems and Veridian) in 2001. Maxar Technologies specializes in manufacturing communication, earth observation, radar, and on-orbit servicing satellites, satellite products, and related services. He has supported a wide variety of SAR, MIMO Radar, GMTI, RFID, and electronic warfare programs. His research interests include radar signal processing and combinatorics.

Dr. Correll is an Active Member of the IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Society and also a member of the Scientific Research Honorary Sigma Xi and Phi Beta Kappa. He was the Vice Chair of meetings of Section 1 of the IEEE Southeast Michigan Chapter from 2010 to 2015 and served on the organizing committees of the four IEEE Radar Conferences. He was elected to the IEEE AESS Radar Systems Panel and serves as the Vice Chair for the Radar Standards Committee.