Radar has evolved from a largely military detection system into a sophisticated three-dimensional imaging tool with hundreds of applications ranging from commercial aviation to fundamental research in the earth and planetary sciences. The ability to measure and map surface topography and crustal change at unprecedented levels over large areas is fundamentally altering the way in which we can measure and model the processes, natural and man-made, that effect our environment.

In this course we will investigate how radar images are formed and manipulated, as well as applications of the systems to problems such as measurement of the Earth crustal deformation mm precision. We will be presenting radar as a signal processing problem, rather than the traditional approach as an instrumentation problem, acknowledging the importance of digital computer algorithms in modern radar systems. The first half of the course will be largely devoted to radar image formation, and topics will include system design, scattering from natural surfaces, range and azimuth processing algorithms, and processor design. In the second half of the course we examine polarimetric radars, which are particularly suited to the study of vegetation cover, plus the increasingly important field of radar interferometry. Interferometric radar techniques, which have formed a large part of radar-related research over the past 10 years, provide a means to characterize very small changes or motions on the Earth over large areas.

The course will be presented in a lecture/seminar style. Each week there will be a significant computer exercise to give experience with implementation of the material presented in class. Some additional homework problems will also be assigned as appropriate. Lecture notes will be handed out routinely, and special handouts will also be distributed from time to time. Reading assignments will be given for most class meetings. These may be from the text or from other sources, most of which will be on reserve at Terman Engineering Library. Homework and computer assignments will generally be given on Fridays and collected on Fridays, with the results handed back by the following Monday or Wednesday. Cooperation on homework is encouraged, but you are expected to keep the work on an approximately equal basis. For now, plan on one midterm exam plus a final term project . Grades will be based on the totality of your work, with weightings of approximately 40% on the final project or exam, 25% on the midterm, 30% on homework, and up to 5% extra credit problems and so forth.

Assigned readings will usually be from the text. You may also find that a different book presents material in ways you can more easily understand, although the selected text is quite good.