Thomas William Karlinsey

YSAR: a compact, low-cost synthetic aperture radar

The Brigham Young University Synthetic Aperture Radar (YSAR) is a compact, inexpensive SAR system which can be flown on a small aircraft. The system has exhibited a resolution of approximately 0.8 m by 0.8 m in test flights in calm conditions. YSAR was used to collect data over archeological sites in Israel. Using a relatively low frequency (2.1 GHz), the authors hope to be able to identify walls or other archeological features to assist in excavation. A large data set of radar and photographic data were collected over sites at Tel Safi, Qumran, Tel Micnah, and the Zippori National Forest in Israel. The authors show sample images from the archeological data. They are currently working on improved autofocus algorithms for this data and are developing a small, low-cost interferometric SAR system (YINSAR) for operation from a small aircraft.

YINSAR: a compact, low-cost interferometric synthetic aperture radar

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) has proven useful for many different applications. Many more applications would be possible with a low-cost instrument. To address this need, BYU has developed its interferometric SAR, YINSAR. This compact, low-cost system is operated from a four passenger aircraft. This paper reports the current status of YINSAR. The system operation and instrument platform are described in detail. The motion measurements and their statistics are discussed.

A broadband constant beamwidth reflector antenna for ocean surface remote sensing applications

We have presented computational results from the design of a reflector antenna which offers a constant beam pattern over a broad frequency range, The synthesis procedure uses a physical optics analysis coupled with a simple surface optimization approach. Results for both elliptical and circular ellipsoidal reflectors show that relatively good results can be obtained using this procedure.

The design and construction of inexpensive RF circuitry for an S-band synthetic aperture radar

Advances in digital technology have made possible the implementation of compact and inexpensive synthetic aperture radar (SAR). This paper presents a design for a compact and inexpensive S-band RF system for use with such a SAR. The design discussed in this paper is made using commercially available surface mount components and is a masters student project. This design is much more compact, and more reliable than the previous prototype design which was implemented in coaxial components. The circuitry consists of isolated transmit and receive channels. The function of these channels and their schematics are presented as well as a discussion on the design techniques used and a description of the physical construction of the circuitry. Measurements are also presented.

YSAR: a compact low-cost synthetic aperture radar

The Brigham Young University Synthetic Aperture Radar (YSAR) is a compact, inexpensive SAR system which can be flown on a small aircraft. The system has exhibited a resolution of approximately 0.8 m by 0.8 m in test flights in calm conditions. YSAR has been used to collect data over archeological sites in Israel. Using a relatively low frequency (2.1 GHz), we hope to be able to identify walls or other archeological features to assist in excavation. A large data set of radar and photographic data have been collected over sites at Tel Safi, Qumran, Tel Micnah, and the Zippori National Forest in Israel. We show sample images from the archeological data. We are currently working on improved autofocus algorithms for this data and are developing a small, low-cost interferometric SAR system (YINSAR) for operation from a small aircraft.