Since the first spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) was launched in 1978, researchers have persistently contributed dozens of years to novel SAR system concepts, SAR data processing algorithms, and related application scenarios. Currently, more and more successful spaceborne SAR missions are being operated in orbit, such as TerraSAR-X, Sentinel-1, Gaofen-3, and even some constellations included. However, with the diversification of Earth observation requirements, traditional single-dimensional data processing of spaceborne SAR can no longer meet application demands in remote sensing applications. The spaceborne SAR systems progressively have the capability to provide multi-dimensional data from multiple polarizations, diverse frequency bands, multiple baselines, different viewing angles, etc. These multi-dimensional data can help achieve enhanced measurement performance in many application scenarios: the utilization of multiple frequency bands and multiple polarizations has become a means of obtaining vertical structures in vegetated and glacier-covered areas; multi-baseline SAR has become a representative means of retrieving three-dimensional (3D) structure in overlapping areas such as cities and mountainous regions.

However, multi-dimensional spaceborne SAR data processing and applications also face challenges, both theoretically and experimentally. Effective frames of methods to fully fuse these multi-dimensional data are still not established. Quantitative evaluation of the multi-dimensional spaceborne SAR data on the performance enhancement in different applications have not been conducted yet. In addition, the simultaneous working of multiple channels, multiple satellites, and multiple frequency bands also poses challenges to concept optimization, system design, engineering implementation, signal processing, applications, etc.

This special issue invites original contributions and advanced research in multi-dimensional spaceborne SAR data processing and applications, with special emphasis on efforts related to the concepts, system design, data processing, application, etc. of multi-dimensional spaceborne SAR. Topics of interest include but are not limited to:

● Signal and information processing methods of multi-dimensional spaceborne SAR data

●Advanced applications of multi-dimensional spaceborne SAR data such as deformation measurements, tomography, moving target detection, etc.

●Novel concepts of multi-dimensional spaceborne SAR (include but not limited to multiple baselines, multiple frequency bands, multiple polarizations, multiple angles, and multiple platforms)

●Advanced spaceborne SAR system design and data processing methods, such as bi-/multi-static spaceborne SAR, geosynchronous orbit SAR

●Engineering design of multi-dimensional spaceborne SAR

All submissions will be peer reviewed according to the Journal of Beijing Institute of Technology guidelines. The contributions should be original and have not been published or submitted elsewhere.

Manuscript should be submitted online viahttps://mc03.manuscriptcentral.com/jbit, and select the special issue “202306- Multi-Dimensional Spaceborne SAR Data Processing and Applications”. Prospective authors may consult the sitehttp://journal.bit.edu.cn/jbitfor guidelines and information on paper submission.

Schedule

Submission deadline: June 30, 2023

Publication date: Dec. 30, 2023

Guest Editors

Cheng Hu, Beijing Institute of Technology, China (cchchb@bit.edu.cn)

Yuanhao Li, Beijing Institute of Technology, China (yuanhaoli@bit.edu.cn)

Jianlai Chen, Central South University, China (jianlaichen@163.com)

Yanyang Liu, Shanghai Institute of Satellite Engineering, China (yanyangliu0510@163.com)

Fengming Hu, Fudan University, China (fm_hu@fudan.edu.cn)

Zhiyang Chen, Beijing Institute of Technology, China (zychen@bit.edu.cn)

Ling Chang, University of Twente, The Netherlands (ling.chang@utwente.nl)