Side looking airborne radar
Side-Looking Airborne Radar (SLAR) is an aircraft- or satellite-mounted imaging radar pointing perpendicular to the direction of flight (hence “side-looking”). A squinted (non-perpendicular) mode is possible also. SLAR can be fitted with a real aperture antenna (Real Aperture Radar, RAR) or an antenna using synthetic aperture (SAR).
The platform of the radar moves in direction of the x-axis. The radar “looks” with the looking angle θ (or so called off-nadir angle). The angle α between x-axis and the line of sight (LOS) is called cone angle, the angle φ between the x-axis and the projection of the line of sight to the (x; y)-plane is called azimuth angle. Cone- and azimuth angle are related by cosα = cosφ ∙ cosε. On the earth surface the wave comes in at the (nominal ellipsoidal) incident angle β with respect to the vertical axis at this point. (In some publications the incident angle is denominated to as θi.) The antenna illuminates an area, the so-called footprint. The direction of the incoming wave relative to the horizontal plane may be measured also. This angle γ = 90° − β is called grazing angle. The angle ϑ = ε + 90° is used for a mathematical description in a spherical coordinate system.
For the approximation of a flat earth – which is usual for airborne radar with short to medium range – the grazing angle and the depression angle can be assumed to be equal γ = ε and the incident angle is β = 180° – ϑ. The so-called LOS-vector is a unit vector (in the figures shown as a red arrow) pointing from the antenna to a ground scatterer. The variables u, v, w are directional cosines with respect to the x; y; z axes. The variable u is u = cosα with α as the azimuth angle between the line of sight and the x-axis (direction of flight).
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Wikipedia