Software Processes SAR Motion-Measurement Data

Motion Measurement Processor (MMP) is one of three computer programs that are used together in the operation of a terrain-mapping dual-frequency interferometric synthetic-aperture-radar (SAR) system. The other two programs - Jurassicprok and Calibration Processor - are described in the two immediately preceding articles. MMP acquires all the motion and attitude data collected by onboard instrumentation systems, including radar, laser and camera metrology, inertial navigation systems, and Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers. MMP combines all this information and processes it into all the trajectory information needed to run Jurassicprok, which performs the interferometric processing and mapping functions. MMP includes several Kalman filters for combining and smoothing aircraft motion and attitude data, and least-squares inversion and filtering software tools for solving for interferometric baseline lengths. MMP synchronizes the motion and radar data. It combines the various measurement data into a unified, seven-dimensional reference system and puts out the resulting filtered trajectory and attitude data along with instructions for use of the data by Jurassicprok, as well as the command files used to operate Jurassicprok.