978-1-4244-6516-3/10/$26.

00 2010 IEEE 507

2010 3rd International Congress on Image and Signal Processing (CISP2010)

ABSTRACT

Microwave imaging techniques which can provide all-weather,
day-and-night imaging capability have important applications
to many fields. It is an active area to explore new microwave
imaging ideas, systems and techniques. In our previous work,
we proposed a new microwave imaging method for earth
observation. In this method, the transmitter and receiver are
located in different platforms, and only a monochromatic
microwave is required to illuminate the earth surface.
Numerical simulation results show that this method can
produce microwave images with high spatial and radiation
resolutions. In this paper, as an extension of our previous work,
we study some important properties of this method, which lead
to a very promising potential application in 3-dimensional (3D)
imaging for earth observation.

Index TermsMicrowave imaging, Electromagnetic
scattering, High resolution, 3D imaging

1. INTRODUCTION

Unlike aerial photography for earth observation, microwave
imaging techniques can provide all-weather, day-and-night
imaging capability. This is due to the capability of microwaves
to penetrate clouds, the independence of the sun as a source of
illumination and the capability of revealing information
different from that in the optical regions [1, 2]. Therefore,
microwave imaging techniques have important applications to
many fields.
Many microwave imaging systems have been developed
such as side-looking airborne radar (SLAR), synthetic-aperture
radar (SAR), microwave hologram radar and microwave
radiometer. Different systems have their own drawbacks. The
airborne SAR is prone to detection and attack by enemies in
battlefield since it has to fly along a line in the air. The
space-borne SAR has poor operation flexibility and low spatial
resolution. The microwave radiometer has low spatial
resolution.
In order to address these drawbacks, it became an active area
to explore new microwave imaging ideas, systems and
techniques. As such an attempt, in our previous work, we
proposed a novel microwave imaging method for earth
observation [3]. The imaging system based on this imaging
method targets to achieve good survival capability in battlefield
and high spatial and radiation resolutions.
As an extension of our previous work [3], we study some
important properties of this method in this paper. These
imaging properties lead to a very promising potential
application in 3D imaging for earth observation.
The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. In
Section 2, we provide a review of the microwave imaging
method proposed in our previous work. In Section 3, we study
some important properties of this method. Concluding remarks
are given in Section 4.

2. REVIEW OF THE IMAGING METHOD

In this section, we review the microwave imaging method for
earth observation. First, we provide a brief description of the
imaging system which is based on this imaging method. Then
we explain in detail the principle of the imaging method.
Finally, we give simulation results to validate the imaging
method.

2.1. Imaging System

The imaging system is depicted in Fig. 1. Like a general radar
system, this system consists of two main functional units:
transmitter and receiver. However, unlike the general radar
system, where the transmitter and receiver are located in the
same place, here, they are located in different places. The
transmitter transmits a monochromatic microwave to illuminate
the area on the ground to be imaged. The receiver, which is
located on an aircraft, samples the microwave signal scattering
from the target area and records the sampling positions while it
is flying in a horizontal plane in the air. The measured
scattering signal and position information will be used to obtain
the image of the target area.


Fig. 1. Imaging system.


A 3D Microwave Imaging Method for Earth Observation
Xiwen Zhao

University of Missouri
Columbia, MO 65211 USA
508

Fig. 2. Geometry of imaging system.

2.2. Imaging Principle

The proposed microwave imaging method is based on the
inverse scattering theory [4]. As shown in Fig. 2, the target area
is approximated as a horizontal planar area and denoted as D.
When D is illuminated by an microwave, F

(r) = F

(x, y, z),
the equivalent current, ], which is made up of the conduction
and displacement currents in the target area, is excited. The
equivalent current results in a reradiation that is so-called
scattering field, F
s
, which can be written as
F
s
(r) =
o
0
4n
_ 6

(r, r
i
) ](

r
i
)ur
i
(1)
where 6

(r, r
i
) is free-space dyadic Greens function:
6

(r, r
i
) = (I

+
1
k
0
2
vv)g(r, r
i
) (2)
g(r, r
i
) =
c
ik
0
R
R
(3)
R = |r -r
i
| (4)
r and r
i
are the coordinates of the scattering field and its
radiation source, respectively, k
0
the free-space wavenumber
and I

the unit tensor. The integral is applied over D. The

interval will be omitted without loss of clarity in the rest of this
paper for simplicity.
When the measured scattering field is sufficiently distant
from its source, the far-field conditions can be applied and
F
s
(r) can be simplified as
F
s
(r) =
o
0
4n
_g(r, r
i
) ](r
i
)ur
i
(5)
Denoting E(o, [, z, z
i
) as the 2D Fourier transform of g(r, r
i
):
E(o, [, z, z
i
)
= _g(r, r
i
)c
-2n|u(x-x
|
)+[(-
|
)]
u(x - x
i
)u(y - y
i
) (6)
we have
E(o, [, z, z
i
) =
2n
k
2
c
k
2
(z-z
|
)
(7)
where
k
2
2
= k
0
2
-4n
2
o
2
-4n
2
[
2
, Im(k
2
) u (8)
From (6), g(r, r
i
) can be rewritten as
g(r, r
i
) = _E(o, [, z, z
i
)c
2n|u(x-x
|
)+[(-
|
)]
uou[ (9)
Substituting (9) into (5), we find
F
s
(r)
=
o
0
4n
__E(o, [, z, z
i
)c
2n|u(x-x
|
)+[(-
|
)]
](r
i
)uou[ ur
i
(10)
Denoting F

s
(o, [, z) as the 2D Fourier transform of F
s
(r):
F

s
(o, [, z) = _F
s
(r)c
-2n(ux+[)
uxuy (11)
we have
F
s
(r) = _F

s
(o, [, z)c
2n(ux+[)
uou[ (12)
By comparing (10) and (12), we find
F

s
(o, [, z) =
o
0
4n
_E(o, [, z, z
i
)c
-2n(ux
|
+[
|
)
](r
i
)ur
i

(13)
Assuming that the horizontal plane where the scattering field is
sampled is located at z = z
0
and D at z' = u, as shown in Fig.
3, (13) can be simplified as
F

s
(o, [, z
0
)
=
ip
0
4n
E(o, [, z, u) ](x
i
, y
i
)c
-2n(ux
|
+[
|
)
ux
i
uy
i

=
o
0
4n
E(o, [, z, u)]

(o, [) (14)
where ]

(o, [) is the 2D Fourier transform of ](x

i
, y
i
).
From (14), we obtain
]

(o, [) =
4n
o
0
F

s
(u,[,z
0
)
H(u,[,z,0)
(15)
and finally
](x
i
, y
i
) =
4n
o
0
_
F

s
(u,[,z
0
)
H(u,[,z,0)
c
2n(ux
|
+[
|
)
uou[ (16)
It is easy to see from (16) that the equivalent current, ](r
i
), can
be calculated from the measurements of the scattering field
strength and positions then the image of ](r
i
) can be readily
obtained from ](r
i
) . Since ](r
i
) is a function of the
geometrical and physical parameters of the targets, the image of
](r
i
) will be able to reveal the properties of the targets.

2.3. Simulation Validation


Fig. 3. Geometry for simulation.

509

Fig. 4. Simulation results for (a) point targets, (b) area targets.
As shown in Fig. 3, D, which is located at z' = u, denotes the
target area on the ground, and , which is located at z = z
0
in
the air, denotes the area where the scattering field is measured.
In order to capture sufficient information of the scattering field,
is generally larger than D, as can be represented with the
angle .
The simulation results are depicted in Fig. 4 (a) point targets
and (b) area targets. Unless otherwise specified, the length is
normalized to the wavelength. All the point and area targets are
located in D. For both Fig. 4 (a) and (b), o = 18
0
and
z
0
= 1uu. In Fig. 4 (a), the distances between adjacent point
targets are 2.5, 3.5 or 4.0. In Fig. 4 (b), the two rectangles are
size of S 24 and S 16, respectively. The two isosceles
right triangles are of same size and the length of the leg is 12.
The distance between adjacent area targets is 3. The differences
of the radiation power of the area targets are 3dB, 1.8dB and
1.2dB respectively. The simulation results show that our
microwave imaging method can produce images with high
spatial and radiation resolutions. Further simulation results,
which are not given here, show that increasing o improves the
spatial and radiation resolutions. Theoretically the spatial
resolution can approach the wavelength when o goes to 9u
0
.
Conversely, the value of z
0
has insignificant impact on the
resolutions.

3. IMPORTANT PROPERTIES OF THE IMAGING
METHOD

In this section, we will explore some important properties of the
microwave imaging method. First, we will study the impact of
the measurement error of the scattering field sampling positions
on imaging results. Then we will explore the imaging of some
simple 3D targets. Finally we will exploit the impact of Ds
position on imaging results. Unless otherwise specified,
o = 1S
0
and z
0
= 1uu in this section.

3.1. Measurement Error of Scattering Field Sampling
Positions

As can be seen from Section 2, the position information of the
scattering field is necessary for target imaging. As can be
expected, the precision of the position measurement will have
an impact on imaging result. In this subsection, we explore this
impact as follows: Add random noises onto the ideal positions
then check the resulting image. We assume that the noise is
Gaussian, and the mean and standard deviation are 0 and o,
respectively. Two types of targets: point targets and area
targets, which are located in D at z
i
= u, are used in this study.
3.1.1. Measurement Error in x or y ircction

Fig. 5. Measurement error in x oi y diiection: point targets.

Fig. 6. Measurement error in x oi y diiection: area targets.

Since measurement error in x direction has similar impact on
imaging results as that in y direction, only either case is
examined here. The simulation results are shown in Fig. 5 for
point targets and in Fig. 6 for area targets.
3.1.2. Measurement Error in z Direction

Fig. 7. Measurement error in z diiection: point targets.

Fig. 8. Measurement error in z diiection: area targets.

The simulation results for measurement error in z direction are
shown in Fig. 7 for point targets and in Fig. 8 for area targets.
By comparing Fig. 5 with Fig. 7 and Fig. 6 with Fig. 8, we see
that the measurement error in z direction has much greater
impact on imaging results than that in x or y direction. This
implies that the imaging method is very sensitive to the
measurement error in z direction and requires high
measurement precision in this direction.
510

3.2. Simple 3D Target Imaging

Like many other microwave imaging techniques for earth
observation, our microwave imaging method targets to obtain a
2D image of 3D targets. In the previous sections, we assumed
that the targets were 2D and located in a horizontal plane, D. In
this sub-section, we explore the imaging of some simple 3D
targets.
As in Section 3.1, two types of targets: point targets and area
targets, are used in this study. However, the targets are located
in two different horizontal planes. As shown in Fig. 9, the point
targets consist of four point targets. The first two (at the top-left
corner) are located in the horizontal plane D: z
1
i
= z
2
i
= u, and
the third and fourth in a different plane: z
3
i
= z
4
i
u. As shown
in Fig. 10, the area targets consist of two area targets. The first
one (top-left) is located in D: z
1
i
= u and the second at z
2
i
u.
The simulation results in Fig. 9 and 10 show that the targets that
are not located in the plane D are blurred out. Further the
distance between the targets and D, more serious the burring.
The root of this phenomenon is the sensitivity of this imaging
method to the scattering field position measurement in z
direction.

Fig. 9. Simple 3D targets imaging: point targets.

Fig. 10. Simple 3D targets imaging: area targets.

3.3. Impact of Ds Position on Imaging Results

In the previous sections, we assumed that Ds position is
z
i
= u. D seems a focus plane to a camera system and we can
expect to get different images by changing its position. In this
sub-section, we explore the impact of Ds position on the
imaging result.
As in Section 3.2, two types of targets: point targets and area
targets, are used in this study. As shown in Fig. 11, the first two
point targets (at the top-left corner) are located at z
1
i
= z
2
i
= u,
and the third and fourth at z
3
i
= z
4
i
= 6. As shown in Fig. 12,
the first area target (top-left) is located at z
1
i
= u and the second
at z
2
i
= 6. We change Ds position, z
i
. The simulation results
in Fig. 11 and 12 show that the targets that are not located in the
plane D are blurred out. Further the distance between the targets
and D, more serious the burring. The root of this phenomenon is
the sensitivity of this imaging method to the scattering field
position measurement in z direction.

Fig. 11. Impact of Ds position: point targets.


Fig. 12. Impact of Ds position: area targets.

4. CONCLUSION

In this paper, we studied some important properties of a
microwave imaging method for earth observation. The
simulation results showed that the imaging method is sensitive
to the measurement error of the scattering field sampling
position in z direction. Making use of this property, we are able
to obtain the height information of 3D targets as follows: As in
Section 3.3, we can obtain different 2D images by locating the
focus plane D at different positions. In each image, the parts
imaged relatively clearly are located in or close to D and those
blurred out far from D. An image can reveal partial information
of the 3D targets and by combining all the information revealed
by all images, we can obtain the complete information of the
targets. In our future work, we will perform simulations to test
the above idea for imaging more general 3D targets.

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[3] Xiwen Zhao, Shourong Zhang, and Weiyan Wang, A New
Microwave Imaging Method for Earth Observation, Journal
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[4] Shourong Zhang, and Weiyan Wang, The Inverse
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