C-band SAR radar trials using UAV platform
Experimental results of SAR system integration on a UAV carrier
D. Gromek, P. Samczynski, K. Kulpa
Institute of Electronic Systems
Warsaw University of Technology
Warsaw, Poland
psamczyn@elka.pw.edu.pl
Abstract— In this paper the experimental results of C-band
synthetic aperture radar (SAR) system integration on an
unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) are shown. The goal of the
presented trials was to check the capabilities and limitations of
the SAR system in UAV applications. The trials were conducted
with a UAV system developed and operated by the Portuguese
Air Force Academy (PAFA) using a compact SAR system, named
SARENKA, developed by the Warsaw University of Technology
(WUT).
Index Terms— FMCW Radar, Radar Imaging, Synthetic
Aperture Radar, SAR, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, UAV, Unmanned
Aerial System, UAS.
I. INTRODUCTION
Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) technology is nowadays
widely used in different applications, both military and civilian,
with Earth surface imaging as the most common one. The main
advantage of this technology is the capability of day and night
operations in a wide variety of weather conditions such as
cloudy days, rain or snow, etc. [1, 2]. This feature alone makes
radar imaging using SAR techniques very attractive in
comparison to optical sensor imaging, which usually requires
clear optic visibility of the targets. This limits the operation of
optical sensor technology mostly to sunny, cloudless days.
For ground imaging application purposes, SAR radars are
mounted on different platforms including space-based satellites
or air platforms such as aircrafts and UAVs. The requirements
for the SAR system strongly depend on the type of platform on
which it is to be installed. In the case of an SAR system
mounted on UAVs the most important requirements include:
size, weight and power consumption, and they are usually
stricter than in the case of SAR systems mounted on relatively
huge and powerful airborne platforms [3-5,13, 14]. Another
requirement relates to SAR signal processing methods which
should be robust for unstable UAV flights. The small UAV
platforms are more susceptible to trajectory variations due to
gusts of wind or air turbulence, which might have an impact on
the quality of the created SAR images.
Furthermore, in the process of selecting the most suitable
SAR system there is yet another factor which needs to be taken
into account, namely its price. Most of the SAR systems
available on the market are expensive ones dedicated to
978-1-5090-2518-3/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE
G. C. S. Cruz, T. M. M. Oliveira, L. F. S. Félix,
P. A. V. Gonçalves, C. M. B. P. Silva,
A. L. C. Santos, J. A. P. Morgado
Portuguese Air Force Academy Research Center
Sintra, Portugal
military operations by and large. To meet all the above
conditions, in 2012 the authors from the Warsaw University of
Technology decided to develop an inexpensive, small,
lightweight and low power consuming SAR radar for UAV
applications. The developed radar, named SARenka, was
successfully tested using various types of moving platforms,
such as cars and small aircraft [3-5]. The ultimate goal of the
trials was to test the radar using UAV platforms. In this paper
real SAR trials with the SARenka system mounted on a UAV
developed and operated by the Portuguese Air Force Academy
(PAFA) are shown.
The main objective of the work presented in this paper was
to learn how to integrate and validate the SAR system fixed to
a small UAV, and also to check the potential and limitations of
such a system in real operational conditions.
II. SAR SYSTEM DESCRIPTION
In this chapter a brief description of SARenka, the SAR
system developed by WUT, is presented. The SARenka radar
is an FMCW (Frequency Modulation Continuous Wave) with a
LFM (Linear Frequency Modulation) waveform. Each part of
the radar (industrial PC, digital part, RF components, DC-DC
buck boost converters) is a CE-marked component available on
the market – otherwise known as commercial off-the-shelf
(COTS) products. The SAR radar demonstrator recorded the
raw data during the flights/operations. As an option the radar
can be equipped with a compact computational module for
real-time SAR processing and a communication link for
transmitting the SAR results in JPG format to the ground
station [6-7]. After landing the SAR images can also be
produced at the ground station [8]. The main technical
parameters/features are presented in Table 1.
TABLE I. MAIN SAR SYSTEM PARAMETERS
Parameter Value
Carrier frequency 5.52 GHz
Bandwidth 24-480 MHz
Pulse Repetition Frequency 0.1-2 kHz
Max. range resolution 30 cm
Max. Azimuth resolution 20 cm
 Parameter Value
Antenna size 20x20 cm

Total system size 20x20x30 cm

Input Voltage 6-34 V

Total system weight 8 kg

Max. power consumption 60 Wat

The SARenka system was built in several versions using

different digital components for radar signal generation and
signal acquisition [3-5, 10]. In the UAV trials the version with
a DDS and ADC board based on the Universal Software Radio
Peripheral (USRP) device was used [10]. This board was
chosen due to its relatively easy deployment in the UAV
payload and its robust mechanism against mechanical damage
during the system’s transportation from WUT, Poland to the
PAFA facilities in Portugal. A simplified block diagram of the
Figure 2. Photo of the SAR system components mounted in the UAS
SAR system used in the trials with the UAV as described in payload bay.
this paper is shown in Fig. 1.
Typically, the payload bay of the aircraft is prepared to
receive two plates installed vertically at a distance of 20 cm.
The plates and payload bay have fastenings for easy installation
and removal of the payload. In addition, utilization of the plates
allows for optimal volume use.
The radar antennas were installed on the exterior of the
aircraft. At first, the solution adopted was to install the
antennas in the fuselage’s side under the wing. This location
was expected to have a minimal impact on the aerodynamic
behavior of the aircraft. Since it was under the wing, it was
anticipated that the antennas’ wake effect in the airflow around
the wing would be very low. Moreover, by installing the
antennas at the fuselage’s rear they were to be shielded from
crosswind, reducing the effects in directional and lateral
stability. However, due to the large dimensions of the antennas
in comparison to the aircraft, a decoy pair of antennas was
installed on the other side of the fuselage in order to maintain
the aircraft’s symmetry relative to the plane XoZ (see Fig. 3).
The objective was to eliminate any yaw or roll movement due
Figure 1. Simplified block diagram of the SAR system used for UAV trails
to the antennas.

III. RADAR ANTENNAS AND SYSTEM VALIDATION

The radar was installed in an experimental unmanned aerial
system (UAS), named ANTEX-M X03, operated by the
Portuguese Air Force. The aircraft had MTOW of 105 kg with
up to 20 kg available for payload. Its cruise speed is 100 km/h.
The radar systems were installed in a payload bay in the
fuselage of the aircraft (see Fig. 2). The configuration and
layout of the radar system were changed in order to adapt it to
the shape of the payload bay. It was also necessary to minimize
the total weight of the radar so as a result some redundant
components were removed. Figure 3. Photo of the UAS with the integrated radar antennas

A new structure was designed for the installation of the

antennas. This structure allowed the placing of the antennas in
the chosen location and the changing of the angle of the
antennas with the plane XoZ of the aircraft.
 The antennas were fastened to a spar made of a 0.05’’ thick V. SAR TRIALS
sheet of ACLAD 2024-T3 aluminum alloy bent in a U-section The first SAR tests took place at the Portuguese Air Force
with a 90 mm web and 25 mm caps. The spar had a length of
UAV test center located in OTA, 40km north of Lisbon on 29
800 mm. The structure comprised two more spars to fix the
antennas spar to the aircraft. These spars are made of 80 mm October 2015. The altitude of these tests were in the range of
wide, 600 mm long and 0.125’’ thick sheets of BARE 7075-T6 1000ft up to 1500 ft. The UAV flight trajectories from these
aluminum alloy. The front spar was fixed at the payload tests are shown in Fig. 5.
bulkhead (a principal structural component) and the rear spar
was fixed at the engine support (another principal structural
component). In the process of installing the front spar, opening
two slots in the fuselage was necessary to allow for the fixing
of the antennas on the exterior and to enable access to the
payload bulkhead at the same time. As shown, the structure
design and materials used created a stiff and robust structure
that minimized the antennas vibrations in flight.

IV. INTEGRATION TESTS

The integration of the radar with the ANTEXM X03 UAV
was carried out with a key concept in mind: “Let’s assure that Figure 5. The UAV flight trajectories from the first tests.
the radar does not cause any interference with the primary
flight systems.” Thus, the implemented preflight safety tests The main goal of these trials was to test the radar during
were based on the NATO AEP83 Light UAS Airworthiness various operations of the UAV and check its ability to make
Requirements. In particular, the radar power supply was images of the ground targets from the UAV platform. Fig. 6
independent of the primary flight systems and the emitting shows the optical image of the area belonging to the
components of the radar could be switched off while in flight. Portuguese Air Force Academy. Fig. 7 shows the
After the radar integration, a thorough measurement procedure corresponding SAR image obtained during the first tests.
was carried out to find any possible leakage of the
electromagnetic signals that could interfere with the UAV
communications and/or control systems. In order to check the
UAV communications link the preflight tests were conducted
with the aircraft a short distance from the ground control
station.

Figure 4. Photo of the UAS during the integration tests Figure 6. The optical image (Google Maps) of the Portuguese Air Force
Academy facilities
 One of the targets during the trials was the Navy ship
presented in Fig. 9.

Figure 9. Photo of the sea target for the SAR operation.

Results of the SAR image of the target presented in Fig. 9 are

shown in Fig. 10.

Figure 7. The SAR image of the Portuguese Air Force Academy facilities.

The second flight campaign for the SAR radar test,

conducted at sea, was carried out from Porto Santo island on
19 November 2015 (see Fig. 8). The main goal of these trials
was to ensure the detection and imaging of the sea targets. The
UAV took off from the LPPS International Airport and flew to
the search region, approximately 1.5NM northbound from the
airport. The IAS was set for 58kts and several patterns were
defined from 1000ft to 2000ft AMSL, with 250ft steps.

Figure 10. The SAR image of the Navy ship presented in Fig. 9

The image presented in Fig. 10 was obtained in a medium

resolution mode (0.62 m). This SAR image of the sea target
allows the dimensions (20 x 140 m) of the target to be
estimated easily, which corresponds very well to the real
dimensions of the observed target. The SAR image presented
in Fig. 10 was obtained using only SAR autofocusing
techniques [12]. For this trial the GPS/INS navigation
platform was broken and there was no information about the
velocity nor even the trajectory. The second reason for using
the SAR autofocus method was that there was no information
Figure 8. A map of Porto Santo island with the area of the airport and the
operational zone at the sea marked by yellow pins. Picture source:
about the relative motion of the navy ship.
GoogleMaps [11].
 VI. CONCLUSIONS
The concept of using an SAR radar built from COTS
components for UAV applications was successfully
verified. The SARenka system was successfully tested on a
UAV during different operational scenarios for ground and
sea surveillance purposes. The main advantage of the
presented system is its light weight, small size and low
power consumption, which allows for its successful
mounting and testing on medium sized UAVs. Another
advantage is the robustness of the real-time SAR
processing, allowing for the high accuracy of the navigation
data gathered from the on-board inertial and GPS systems.
During the flights the SAR system only used GPS data for
processing purposes, and based on the radar echo, all flight
parameters needed to create high quality SAR images were
estimated by the autofocus technique.
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