Raw SAR data compression using vector quantization
Jean-Marie Moureaux, P. M. Gauthier, Michel Barlaud, Pascal Bellemain · International Journal of Remote Sensing · 1995
Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is a day/night and all-weather active imaging system. which can record images with a fine spatial resolution independent of the sensor altitude. All these characteristics make the SAR a valuable instrument for Earth observation. However, computer system technology does not currently enable spaceborne processing and storage of the great amount of data required to synthesize an image. Vector quantization is a lossy numerical method for signal compression. This method can be implemented aboard remote systems and is designed to reduce the bit stream of transmission over a noiseless channel. Analysis and prospects for this compression algorithm, applied on raw SAR data, are presented.