SAR Basics

Purpose

Introduce synthetic aperture radar as an active sensing approach that measures surface backscatter rather than reflected sunlight.

Outline

• Active microwave sensing and backscatter
• Wavelength, polarization, incidence angle, and viewing geometry
• Surface roughness, structure, and moisture effects
• Speckle, terrain distortion, and preprocessing concepts
• Interpreting SAR alongside optical imagery

Later Examples

• Comparing radar response over water, forest, and urban areas
• Viewing the effect of polarization on interpretation
• Using SAR observations when optical imagery is cloudy