REVIEW

Advances and prospects in SAR microwave vision three-dimensional imaging

¹ National Key Laboratory of Microwave Imaging, Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
² School of Electronic, Electrical and Communication Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100094, China
³ Key Laboratory of Intelligent Aerospace Big Data Application Technology, Suzhou 215123, China

^* Corresponding authors (emails: xlqiu@mail.ie.ac.cn (Xiaolan Qiu); cbding@mail.ie.ac.cn (Chibiao Ding))

Received: 17 March 2024
Revised: 6 June 2024
Accepted: 2 July 2024

Abstract

Synthetic Aperture Radar three-dimensional (3D) imaging enables the acquisition of more comprehensive information, making it a recent hotspot in radar imaging. Traditional 3D imaging methods have evolved from 2D and interferometric imaging, combining elevation aperture extension with signal processing techniques. Limitations such as long acquisition or complex system from its imaging mechanism restrict its application. In recent years, rapid development of artificial intelligence has led to a swift advancement in radar, injecting new vitality into SAR 3D imaging. SAR microwave vision 3D imaging theory, which is built upon advanced technologies, has emerged as a new interdisciplinary field for radar imaging. This paper reviews SAR 3D imaging’s history and present situation, and introduces SAR microwave vision. We establish a theoretical framework covering representation models, computational models, processing paradigms and evaluation systems. Additionally, our research progress in this area is discussed, along with future prospects for SAR microwave vision 3D imaging.