Processing and imaging of towed-streamer electromagnetic data with synthetic aperture method

Abstract The synthetic aperture (SA) method is one of the key techniques in remote sensing using radio frequency signals. Introduced in the early 1950s, Synthetic Aperture Radar, or SAR revolutionized reconnaissance surveying using radio and microwave signals. The key idea of the SAR is based on considering the entire flight path of airborne or spaceborne platform as a huge synthetic antenna, and on processing simultaneously all signals collected along this path. As a result, the clarity and resolution of the images produced by SAR can be improved dramatically.