NUFFT-Based iterative reconstruction algorithm for synthetic aperture imaging radiometers

Synthetic aperture imaging radiometers (SAIRs) are powerful sensors for high-resolution observation of the Earth at low microwave frequencies. However, the future application of this new technology is limited by its large number of element antennas and receiving channels. In order to further reduce the complexity of the whole system, the circular and rotating array configurations have been proposed. Their disadvantages lie primarily in more complicated image reconstruction, because the conventional fast Fourier transform (FFT) method could not be used directly for image reconstruction. This letter introduces an iterative method for the reconstruction of radiometric brightness temperature maps from nonuniform visibility function samples. This method combines the conjugate gradient algorithm with minmax nonuniform FFT approach, which has been shown to provide considerably improved image quality relative to the traditional gridding method. Simulations for SAIRs were performed and showed better image quality in comparison to the traditional frequency interpolation method.