Modelling and Processing of Radar Signals for Earth Observation

Call for Papers

The rapidly growing number of real aperture and synthetic aperture radars (SARs) devoted to Earth observation provides today a very broad coverage across space, time, and the electromagnetic spectrum. Very large quantities of data and images are being systematically collected, processed, and stored. The all-weather, day and night capability of these radar sensors permits acquisition of information under conditions that are not possible with EO sensors. Radars can monitor iceberg position, movement, and age to improve safety at sea. They can provide useful information on oceans and their currents. Radars can also explore vast areas of the Earth, providing an inventory of potential mineral resources, new transportation routes, freshwater supplies, sites for agriculture, and so on. Radar has applications in such diverse areas as geophysics, hydrology, mineral exploration, topographic mapping, land-use monitoring, agriculture, and forestry.

The extraction and exploitation of the information present in the received radar signals require good electromagnetic and statistical models for the echoes scattered by land and sea. These models must accommodate a wide range of sensor characteristics and environmental conditions.

The focus of this IJNO special issue is on new statistical and electromagnetic modelling of data and images recorded by SARs and other radars. Also of importance are advanced signal processing techniques aimed at retrieving biological and geophysical information from these data for observation and monitoring of the Earth.Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

  • SAR tomography of forest and urban areas
  • SAR topography and interferometry
  • Radar polarimetry
  • Statistical modelling of scattering from sea and land in high-resolution radar systems
  • Radar observation of ocean current features
  • Ocean pollution detection and monitoring
  • Forest and soil parameter estimation
  • Multifrequency/multipolarimetric data and image analysis
  • Change detection and multitemporal analysis
  • Radar and/or SAR image and data fusion
  • Data and image analyses for classification

Authors should follow the International Journal of Navigation and Observation manuscript format described at the journal site http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijno/. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/, according to the following timetable:

Manuscript Due February 1, 2008
First Round of Reviews May 1, 2008
Publication Date August 1, 2008

Guest Editors

  • Maria Greco, Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell'Informazione, University of Pisa, 56122 Pisa, Italy
  • Simon Watts, Aerospace Division, Manor Royal, Crawley, West Sussex RH10 9PZ, UK