GDAL SoC Ideas/SAR Processor

Overview

Synthetic Aperture RADAR (SAR) data requires significant processing after acquisition. Since SAR tends to be a very specialized field, there are very few open source applications that specialize in manipulating processed data, much less processing raw data. The goal of this project then would be:

Create as generic as possible a SAR Level 0 product processor using the Range-Doppler Algorithm
Enhance and extend GDAL's capabilities for reading Level 0 (only) products from a variety of platforms (one point worth investigating is some airborne platforms such as the CV-580)
Use GDAL to serialize the resulting image data, be it a GeoTIFF or some other format desired (COSAR, JPEG, who knows, with GDAL there is lots of flexibility)

There are presently no open source applications that are capable of processing Level 0 products, and this is something people have indicated they would desire in the past.

Proposed Schedule

TBD

Implementation Details

Initial Goals

Establish a library providing basic mathematical functionality needed: Fast Fourier Transforms, certain types of filter kernel generation, matrix operations, interpolations, chirp generation, etc... as needed (and as can be borrowed from elsewhere)
Ensure that GDAL is up to reading Level 0 SAR data for RADARSAT-1 (this will be the initial test platform) data.
Design a system that is flexible and modular so that a variety of processing algorithms can be implemented in the future such as Omega-K and SPECAN.

Range Doppler Algorithm

Implement the majority of the Range Doppler Algorithm, both documented in Ian Cummings and Frank Wong's book, as well as in a variety of technically significant papers.

Range FFT/matched filter generation
Range Cell Migration Correction
Azimuth FFT
etc...

Image Processing Toolkit

If time permits, provide a set of tools designed for manipulating SAR data, such as tools for assisting in anomaly detection, perhaps as functionality to be added to GRASS.

Benefits of this Project

Presently, purchasing a raw SAR processor is an expensive and often challenging task -- the software either has performance issues, has bugs or just simply doesn't hit the right niche for your application. A benefit of an open source SAR processor being available is that the software can be easily modified to suit specific purposes and for experimentation with processing algorithms. As well, supporting new platforms would be easy since the processing pre-requisites would already be completed and easily accessible to all!

People Who Might Be Interested

There has been talk for years within Defence Research and Development Canada of the potential for an Open Source SAR processor.
Canada Centre for Remote Sensing
Commercial users (the cost of a SAR processor as it stands is not insignificant)

Licensing

The SAR Processing functionality (currently nicknamed OpenSAR) will be licensed under the GNU General Public License v2. Components to be contributed back to GDAL will be licensed under the MIT/X style license used by the project.

Who Am I?

I am an undergraduate student at Carleton University. I am very interested in Synthetic Aperture RADAR from both a processing problem perspective and an applications perspective. I'm very interested in computer sight and have done several experiments involving facial recognition and creating new colour spaces, for example those based on Log Opponents for the purpose of facial identification. As well I've done some work on computer vision applications with regards to Captchas, most recently work on the captchas for MySpace and Digg. My love for SAR and image processing applications can probably be traced back to the fact that my father has been doing research in this field as long as I remember. I suppose apples don't fall far from the tree... With regards to SAR I have done some work on my own library for reading RADARSAT-1 (and generic) Level 0 products, which can be found on my homepage. As well, I have started work on OpenSAR, however, due to time constraints I have been unable to work on it as much as I would have liked to.

As far as programming languages, I am fluent in C[++], Java and Ada. I'm fairly familiar with Lisp, OCAML and Haskell, but I still like to write with those languages while keeping a detailed reference by my side. As well I can muddle my way through most other programming languages given time.

Being very interested in image processing applications, it seems appropriate that I'm an avid photographer. However, unlike the work I enjoy doing in my spare time on computer sight, I prefer to take a more old-fashioned approach and still trust my Nikon FM2n (135 format) and my Bronica SQ-A (medium format) film cameras more than I trust a digital camera. Some of my photos can be found on my Flickr site, however, it has been awhile since I updated it (and I really need a new scanner!).

this is still a work in progress