Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

For a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) system, the Doppler centroid is the azimuth Doppler frequency received from a point scatterer centered in the azimuth antenna pattern. This parameter is required by the SAR processor in order to properly focus SAR images. Since the azimuth Doppler spectrum is weighted by the azimuth antenna pattern, the Doppler centroid can be determined by locating the peak of the Doppler spectrum. This measurement, however, is ambiguous because the azimuth Doppler spectrum is aliased by the radar pulse repetition frequency (PRF). To resolve the ambiguity, the antenna beam angle, which determines the Doppler centroid, is measured; the accuracy of this measurement must be high enough to determine the Doppler centroid to within ±PRF/2. For some SAR systems, such as the future Radarsat system, the beam angle measurement must be very accurate; this can be technically infeasible or too costly to implement. This thesis examines an alternative approach to resolving the Doppler centroid ambiguity which does not require accurate beam angle measurement In most SAR processors, several partial azimuth aperture "looks" are processed, rather than a single long aperture, in order to yield a final SAR image with reduced speckle noise. If the Doppler centroid is in error by an integer number of PRFs, then the SAR looks will be defocussed and misregistered in range. The degree of misregistration depends on with which Doppler centroid ambiguity the data is processed. The new method for Doppler centroid ambiguity estimation measures the range displacement of SAR looks using a cross-correlation of looks in the range direction. The theoretical background and details of the new method are discussed. The effects of differing terrain types, wave motion, and errors in the azimuth frequency modulation (FM) rate are addressed. The feasibility of the approach is demonstrated by testing the cross-correlation algorithm on available Seasat data processed with simulated Doppler centroid ambiguity errors. The Seasat analysis is extrapolated to the Radarsat system with favourable results. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Electrical and Computer Engineering, Department of / Graduate

Three key areas of controversy in synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) imaging of ocean surface waves are considered: first, the nature of Bragg scattering; second, the role, magnitude, and calculation of the scene coherence time; and third, the relevant ocean wave velocities for coherent Doppler modulations. This work begins with a re-derivation and extension of existing SAR imaging theory for point and diffuse targets. Generic, relatively simple, closed-form expressions for the impulse response, the resolution, and the image bandwidth summarize this unified treatment. Theoretical differences between the imagery of point and diffuse targets are pointed out. Based upon these fundamental differences, a statistical testing procedure is formulated to address the question of scene target density. Background ocean surface wave theory is outlined in preparation for discussions of SAR ocean imaging. Of central importance is the role of the phase velocity, which is the speed of translation of the mean pattern of reflectivity, and the orbital motion, which leads to coherent (phase) modulation, and hence to velocity bunching, acceleration defocus, and target decorrelation. Based upon this theoretical background, one- and two-dimensional simulation models are developed. The one-dimensional simulation addresses the effects of various parameters upon the mean image contrast in a velocity bunching model and guides the development of the two-dimensional simulation. The two-dimensional simulation is unique because each target which constitutes the scene is explicitly considered. This leads to a degree of control and flexibility which is not available from actual SAR imagery. Qualitative and quantitative comparisons are drawn between the simulated and actual SAR imagery to address the key areas of controversy. The assertion that Bragg scattering is a coherent process is defended, despite inability to conclusively verify this using SEASAT data. Comparisons between simulation and C-SAR imagery of waves propagating into ice verify the roles of the scene coherence time and the wave phase velocity. / Science, Faculty of / Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, Department of / Graduate

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 28-31, 1996 / Town and Country Hotel and Convention Center, San Diego, California / This paper contains a description of a new technology tracking feed and a discussion of the features which make this feed unique and allow it to perform better than any other comparable feed. Also included in this report are measured primary antenna patterns, measured and estimated phase tracking performance and estimated aperture efficiency. The latter two items were calculated by integrating the measured primary patterns.

No description available.

Quantifying above-ground biomass (AGB) and carbon sequestration has been a significant focus of attention within the UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol for improvement of national carbon accounting systems (IPCC, 2007; UNFCCC, 2011). A multitude of research has been carried out in relatively flat and homogeneous forests (Ranson & Sun, 1994; Beaudoin et al.,1994; Kurvonen et al., 1999; Austin et al., 2003; Dimitris et al., 2005), yet forests in the highlands, which generally form heterogeneous forest cover and sparse woodlands with mountainous terrain have been largely neglected in AGB studies (Cloude et al., 2001; 2008; Lumsdon et al., 2005; 2008; Erxue et al., 2009, Tan et al., 2010; 2011a; 2011b; 2011c; 2011d). Since mountain forests constitute approximately 28% of the total global forest area (Price and Butt, 2000), a better understanding of the slope effects is of primary importance in AGB estimation. The main objective of this research is to estimate AGB in the aforementioned forest in Glen Affric, Scotland using both SAR and LiDAR data. Two types of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data were used in this research: TerraSAR-X, operating at X-band and ALOS PALSAR, operating at L-band, both are fully polarimetric. The former data was acquired on 13 April 2010 and of the latter, two scenes were acquired on 17 April 2007 and 08 June 2009. Airborne LiDAR data were acquired on 09 June 2007. Two field measurement campaigns were carried out, one of which was done from winter 2006 to spring 2007 where physical parameters of trees in 170 circular plots were measured by the Forestry Commission team. Another intensive fieldwork was organised by myself with the help of my fellow colleagues and it comprised of tree measurement in two transects of 200m x 50m at a relatively flat and dense plantation forest and 400m x 50m at hilly and sparse semi-natural forest. AGB is estimated for both the transects to investigate the effectiveness of the proposed method at plot-level. This thesis evaluates the capability of polarimetric Synthetic Aperture Radar data for AGB estimation by investigating the relationship between the SAR backscattering coefficient and AGB and also the relationship between the decomposed scattering mechanisms and AGB. Due to the terrain and heterogeneous nature of the forests, the result from the backscatter-AGB analysis show that these forests present a challenge for simple AGB estimation. As an alternative, polarimetric techniques were applied to the problem by decomposing the backscattering information into scattering mechanisms based on the approach by Yamaguchi (2005; 2006), which are then regressed to the field measured AGB. Of the two data sets, ALOS PALSAR demonstrates a better estimation capacity for AGB estimation than TerraSAR-X. The AGB estimated results from SAR data are compared with AGB derived from LiDAR data. Since tree height is often correlated with AGB (Onge et al., 2008; Gang et al., 2010), the effectiveness of the tree height retrieval from LiDAR is evaluated as an indicator of AGB. Tree delineation was performed before AGB of individual trees were calculated allometrically. Results were validated by comparison to the fieldwork data. The amount of overestimation varies across the different canopy conditions. These results give some indication of when to use LiDAR or SAR to retrieve forest AGB. LiDAR is able to estimate AGB with good accuracy and the R2 value obtained is 0.97 with RMSE of 14.81 ton/ha. The R2 and RMSE obtained for TerraSAR-X are 0.41 and 28.5 ton/ha, respectively while for ALOS PALSAR data are 0.70 and 23.6 ton/ha, respectively. While airborne LiDAR data with very accurate height measurement and consequent three-dimensional (3D) stand profiles which allows investigation into the relationship between height, number density and AGB, it's limited to small coverage area, or large areas but at large cost. ALOS PALSAR, on the other hand, can cover big coverage area but it provide a lower resolution, hence, lower estimation accuracy.

The thesis summarizes a selection of my research within Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR). Mainly the research is aimed at applying and developing signal processing methods to single channel and multi channel SAR for wideband systems. SAR systems can generate images looking very similar to optical pictures, i.e. photos, and sometimes with much finer resolution compared to optical systems orbiting Earth. SAR has also for instance been used to obtain fine resolution images of the moon, Venus and the satellites of Saturn. Other applications for SAR has is to detect changes in ice sheets and deforestation. In this thesis, SAR systems capable of very high resolution imaging are con- sidered, and data from such systems, namely the VHF system CARABAS-II and the UHF system LORA, is used. High resolution imaging in this thesis refers to high resolution with regard to wavelength, this independent of system operating frequency. Two of the topics in this thesis are related to detection and parameter estimation of moving objects in SAR, the first one using CARABAS-II data and the second with LORA data. On the CARABAS-II data, a speed estimation and refocusing method is introduced and applied to single channel CARABAS-II data. The results show good estimation accuracy as well as good ability to focus the object and suppress forest clutter by ap- plying the refocusing algorithm. The results on LORA data are satisfactory especially with regard to forest clutter suppression. The ability to detect and focus images of ships allow for surveillance of coastal areas and help in rescue of ships lost at sea. Detection and location of cars and trucks allow for traffic monitoring to obtain statistics of how many cars travel the roads and their speed. In the thesis, two more important aspects for SAR processing is presented. One paper presents windowing of UWB SAR images. A strong object such as a power line in a SAR image cause ringing on both sides of the power line. This ringing can cause a small house to be covered by these so called side lobes. Applying a window can make these side lobes in the image much suppressed, however if windowing too much, the power line will smear over the image, covering the small house. The last topic in the thesis concern with theoretical limits for measurement accuracy of parameters for a moving object in a SAR image. These parameters are position, velocity, radar cross section and phase. The theoretical expressions are verified using simulations for a single channel system for estimation accuracy of target speed and relative speed.

Populations of non-native signal crayfish, Pacifastacus leniusculus, are damaging to UK native species and habitats though their populations are expanding with no coherent framework in place for their control. This is partly the result of a literature gap on the effect of trapping on non-native crayfish population structure which this thesis will explore in order to add to the European literature. Population size structure analysis has been facilitated via the creation of novel samplers and an in-depth analysis of the effect of aperture on the size/life stage of crayfish sampled. Smaller trap apertures, the addition of refuge material and novel samplers increased the catch of juvenile crayfish. Sex was indeterminable for up to 50% of juvenile crayfish, with juvenile sex ratios potentially biased towards females. Conditions on the River Lark did not limit populations, though temperature varied significantly between sites whilst substrata, pH and biological oxygen demand did not. Three years of trapping and juvenile sampling enabled population analysis at a site level. The population at Lark Head (professionally trapped), had a consistent size structure from 2010 to 2012, whilst individuals at Barton Mills (community trapped) and the Plough (untrapped), showed size decreases over time. The proportions of adult to juvenile individuals, and males to females, were similar at all three sites in 2011 & 2012. Catch per unit effort, decreased at all three sites with the greatest reductions at trapped sites. There is no evidence that catch sizes, or the proportion of juveniles, increased with trapping in spite of one site being trapped by the community since 2001 and another trapped by professionals since 2005. This refutes inferences that trapping causes an increase in biomass due to a reduction in the number of cannibalistic and dominant large males, with size and sex bias in traps also not corroborated.

The Magellanic Clouds have long provided a rich celestial laboratory for many astrophysical research programmes. Their location relatively close to the Earth and away from the plane of our Galaxy has made them a natural target for Southern Hemisphere ground-based instrumentation. Likewise, the continuing quest for images of the Clouds with higher dynamic range and improved angular resolution has driven a continual improvement in instrumentation across a range of wavelength bands. The cornerstone of this thesis is a study of selected sources in the Magellanic Clouds. The sample was chosen from the 843MHz Molonglo Observatory Synthesis Telescope survey of the Clouds, based on the existing knowledge of each source, its flux density and angular extent. This sample was used to explore observational and analysis techniques with the Australia Telescope Compact Array in order to better determine the nature of these objects and to identify those sources worthy of further study. This work highlights many pertinent issues associated with the correct classification of sources when only a limited amount of data is available. These issues led directly to the development of a more systematic approach in the classification of the Large Magellanic Cloud source sample, detailed for the first time in this thesis. Two supernova remnants in the Small Magellanic Cloud were studied in detail. The Australia Telescope images of 1E0102.2-7219 revealed, for the first time, the radio structure of this young oxygen-rich supernova remnant, and allowed a detailed comparison with existing optical and X-ray data to be undertaken. The comparisons presented in this thesis and in an earlier publication have prompted exciting new X-ray observations at unprecedented angular resolution. The second, 0101-7226, studied as part of an international collaboration, has a shell morphology at radio wavelengths but no associated X-ray emission and is therefore something of an enigma.

Point source extraction is critical to proper analysis of images containing point sources obtained by focal plane array cameras. Two popular methods of extracting the intensity of a point source are aperture photometry and point spread function fitting. Digital aperture photometry encompasses procedures utilized to extract the intensity of an imaged point source. It has been used by astronomers in various forms for calculating stellar brightness. It is also useful for doing analysis of data associated with other unresolved radiating objects. The various aperture photometry methods include the two-aperture method, aperture correction, and growth curve method. The growth curve method utilizes integrated irradiance within an aperture versus growing aperture size. Signal to noise ratio, imperfect backgrounds, moving and off centered targets, and noise structure are just a few of the items that can cause problems with point source extraction. This thesis presents a study of how best to apply the growth curve method. Multiple synthetic image sets were produced to replicate real world data. The synthetic images contain a Gaussian target of known intensity. Noise was added to the images, and various image related parameters were altered. The growth curve method is then applied to each data set using every reasonable aperture size combination to calculate the target intensity. It will be shown that for different types of data, the most optimal application of the growth curve method can be determined. An algorithm is presented that can be applied to all data sets that fall within the scope of this study will be presented.