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The pod integrated variant of the airborne SmartRadar by AIRBUS Defence and Space, mounted under the wing of a Learjet 35 aircraft, is used as a testbed to develop advanced radar modes. In particular, it offers the capabilities of a multiphase-center active electronically steered array (AESA) antenna and of a flexible, wide-bandwidth radar core. During the last 2 years, the already-operated synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and ground moving target indication (GMTI) modes have been supplemented by newly developed maritime modes. This overview paper discusses the new maritime modes, presents recent results from our 2013/14 flight campaigns, and points out some interesting technological aspects with focus on algorithmic issues. In particular, maritime modes for open-sea surveillance, maritime MTI, and inverse SAR imaging of ships are discussed in detail. All of these radar modes make use of the instantaneous repointing capability of the fixed-mounted AESA antenna.Index Terms-Inverse SAR (ISAR), land/sea discrimination (LSD), maritime radar modes, maritime MTI, moving target indication (MTI), space-time adaptive processing (STAP), synthetic aperture radar (SAR).

This paper investigates a specific application of digital beamforming in order to provide a new class of SAR instruments offering high resolution, wide swath and continuous coverage.

TerraSAR-X is an X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar satellite ( Figure 1) which is financed, designed, built and operated in frame of a public-private partnership between the German Aerospace Center DLR and Astrium GmbH. The TerraSAR Frontend is based on the DLR funded technology program DESA [I]. End of 2005, TerraSAR X will be launched into a circular, sun-synchronous 514 km dusk-dawn orbit. The use of an active phased array antenna allows for a wide variety of advanced SAR modes like ScanSAR or SpotlightSAR. This supports the commercial use of the radar for earth observation services and also offers through its flexibility a good experimental platform for radar scientists. The design drivers for the array are not only antenna performance but mainly the thermal stability, mass and power efficiency and cost effectiveness.

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