Multi-static MIMO-SAR Three Dimensional

Deformation Measurement System

Tao Zeng, Cong Mao, Cheng Hu, Xiaopeng Yang*, Weiming Tian
School of Information and Electronics, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China
Beijing Key Laboratory of Embedded Real-time Information Processing Technology
xiaopengyang@bit.edu.cn
AbstractHerein is proposed a novel high-steep rock slope
landslide monitoring system based on the configuration of multistatic multiple-input multiple-output synthetic aperture radar
(MIMO-SAR). In this system, three spastically distributed radars
are employed. Each is a Ku-band MIMO-SAR, transmitting
mutually orthogonal waveforms and sensing the slope movement
from different view angles. The three radars can then achieve the
deform measurements in the three line of sight (LOS) directions.
After an effective fusion of these measurements, the deform
vector, with direction and amount, can be resolved. This vector is
particularly important for risk warning as well as for
understanding the motion mechanism of landslide. Moreover, the
data acquisition period can be largely reduced, since the use of
MIMO radar allows a simultaneous sampling of the scene echo.
The time decorrelation is therefore very small, and hence high
measurement accuracy can be expected. It can be proved that,
using this system, the three-dimensional accuracy can reach 0.1 ~
1 mm. Simulations and experimental datasets are used to validate
this proposal.
Index TermsDeformation measurement, ground based SAR,
MIMO, three-dimensional measurement.

I. INTRODUCTION
Landslide is the worlds second geologic disaster next to
earthquake. Amongst all kinds of landslides, the high-steep
rock slope landslide is characterized by huge potential energy,
sudden occurrence, and short collapse time (and thus short time
for early warning) [1]-[3]. It can be very destructive and
seriously threatens most of the engineering projects and
peoples life and property. Furthermore, compared with
uniform-terrene slope, the high-steep rock slope landslide has
very tiny surface displacement before macroscopically sliding.
More effective equipment, with high accuracy, high
time/spatial resolution, and good coverage, is particularly
needed for monitoring high-steep rock slopes.
However, now existing landslide monitoring method
cannot satisfy the aforementioned requirements well. The
conventional point-measuring techniques (e.g., clinometers,
extensometers, distometers, GPS, etc.) usually have good
measurement accuracy but bad coverage, and therefore cannot
give a continuous information of the area. The remote sensing
method, such as spaceborne/airborne SARs, can achieve a
large coverage measurement. Nevertheless, they have very
limiting accuracy and time resolution that cannot be applied in
tiny or fast deformation measurement. Recent years, interest of

c
978-1-4673-7297-8/15/$31.00 2015
IEEE

using GB-SAR in terrain deform monitoring has increased. A

commercially available microwave interferometer is
manufactured by IDS and named IBIS [4]-[6]. It is capable of
delivering areal displacements with high accuracy of 0.1mm.
However, it can only sense the deformation along line of sight
(LOS) direction. Its sampling rate is not enough either, which
can be 5 minutes, and therefore cannot measure fast change
phenomena, such as terrain vibration.
In this paper, a multi-static multiple-input multiple-output
synthetic aperture radar (MIMO-SAR) based three dimensional
terrain deform measurement system is proposed. This system is
consisting of three spatially distributed MIMO-SARs. They
simultaneously sense the terrain deform from different view
angles and achieve deform measurements along three LOS
directions. After an effective fusion of these measurements, the
high quality three-dimensional deform-field of the terrain can
be estimated. Benefiting from the waveform-diverse of MIMOSAR, the data acquisition period is largely reduced, and
therefore the time decorrelation is small, which can result a
high accuracy measurement. By introducing more degree of
freedom in the monitoring, i.e. three distributed radars with
different view angles, the three dimensional measurement can
be achieved. Not only the deformation along LOSs direction,
but also the real deform direction and deform amounts can be
sensed. This information is important in early warning as well
as in understanding the motion mechanism of landslide.
This paper is outlined as follow. Section II gives the system
configuration and the general theory of three dimensional
deformation measurement. Section III discusses the MIMOSAR system design in detail. In section IV, the MIMO-SAR
imaging strategy and its simulation results are given. Section V
analyses the accuracy of deformation measurement in three
dimensions. Finally in section VI, the conclusion is drawn.
II. OVERVIEW OF MULTI-STATIC MIMO-SAR DEFORMATION
MONITORING SYSTEM
Traditional differential interferometry SAR (DInSAR)
deformation monitoring can only achieve one dimensional
measurement (in the LOS direction). Meanwhile, its revisit
period is relatively long, commonly five to ten minutes, and
restricts its achievable accuracy and its application in vibration
measurement. In order to overcome these shortages, a
monitoring system based on multi-static MIMO-SAR
differential interferometry is proposed in this paper. The

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system configuration is shown in Fig. 1. Three MIMO-SARs

are spatially distributed and monitoring the same area. By
using the technique of differential interferometry, the targets
displacement in the three LOSs directions can be then sensed.
Combining these measurements from the three radars, a deform
vector, suggesting the deform direction and the deform amount,
can be achieved.

equivalent process can also be explained by a space

convolution of transmit and receive antenna locations [7]-[9].
L

4d

Transmitter C

Transmitter B

TransmitterA

Receive array
A8 B1

B8 C1

Effective phase centersA1

Transmit array

C8

Transmit array

d/2

Receive array

4
d

d
4d

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

260d

(b)

(a)
8d

497d

Receive array

16d

Receive array

Transmit array

Transmit array

Transmit array

8d

8d

d
16d

264d

(c)

(d)

Fig. 2.The effective phase center approximation (a) and MIMO-SAR

array design: (b) 8 Ts and 64 Rs; (c) 16 Ts and 32 Rs; (d) 16 Ts and 32
Rs

Fig. 1. Illustration of the multi-static MIMO-SAR deformation

measurement system

TABLE I. PERFORMANCE REQUIREMENT

System Parameters
Carrier frequency
Operating range
Operating azimuth angle
Range resolution
Azimuth resolution
Deformation measurement accuracy
in LOSs direction
Deformation measurement accuracy
in three dimensional space

Values
Ku-band (wavelength of 18
mm)
30 m ~ 5 km
45
0.2m
3.4 m @ 1 km
0.1 mm
0.1 mm ~ 1 mm

Furthermore, the revisit period, i.e., the time baseline, of

differential interferometry can be significantly reduced, since
the employment of MIMO-SAR allows a simultaneous
sampling of the scene echo. The time decorrelation is therefore
weakened and the performance of deformation measurement
accuracy is further improved. Meanwhile, it is also possible to
apply this system to fast deforming observation, such as
vibration measurement. The main performance parameters of
this system are given in Table I. The whole system operates on
Ku-band. The observing range scope is from 30m up to 5km.
The azimuth angle scope for each MIMO-SAR is from -45deg
to 45deg. Finally, the deformation measurement accuracy can
reach 0.1mm~1mm (the accuracy along LOSs is 0.1mm and
degrades in other directions).
III. MIMO-SAR SYSTEM DESIGN
When design the MIMO radar system, the effective phase
centre theory is commonly employed. Basically, under the far
field condition, a pair of transmit and receive antennas can be
approximated by a transmit/ receive collocated phase centre at
their midpoint. This process is shown in Fig. 2 (a). In it, 3
transmit and 8 receive antennas are approximated by a linear
array with 24 phase centres. As what is widely known, this

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In this sub-section, the design process of one set of MIMOSAR configuration will be given.
1) According to the azimuth angular resolution , the
requirement of aperture length E can be given by

= 0.44

(1)

2) According to the sweep angle scope, the spacing of dense

array, d , is required to satisfy

(2)
1 + sin max
3) Then, the total number of transmit and receive channels is
2E
MN =
(3)
d
4) Determine the number of transmit channels, M , and the
number of receive channels, N . In order to product a large
MN , M and N should be as close as possible.
5) Determine the locations of transmit antennas and receive
antennas according to the spacing of effective phase centres,
d / 2 . For the sake of power efficiency, the dense array is
usually put at the ends and the sparse array is put in the middle.
In order to satisfy the requirements in Table I, three kind of
configuration has been proposed and shown in Figure 2 (b)-(d).
Meanwhile, their performance is summed up in Table II. It can
be seen that the configuration in Fig. 2 (d), with 16 transmit
channels and 32 receive channels, cost less but achieves more.
It uses the smallest number of channels but achieves high
utilization ratio. The dense arrays are at the two ends and
transmit orthogonal waveforms. The sparse array is in the
middle and receives scene echoes. Therefore, Fig. 2 (d) is
selected as the final plan, and its detail parameters are summed
up in Table III.
TABLE II. COMPARISON OF THREE MIMO CONFIGURATIONS
Number of Ts
Number of Rs
Effective aperture length
(mm)
Real aperture length (mm)

Fig. 2 (b)
8
64

Fig. 2 (c)
16
32

Fig. 2 (d)
16
32

2304

2304

2304

2340

4473

2376

2015 IEEE 5th Asia-Pacific Conference on Synthetic Aperture Radar(APSAR)

98.5%

51.5%

I ( ,sin ; 0 , 0 )

97.0%

( n; , ) + r ( n; , )

sr t
, n; 0 , 0
2
=

MN 1
n =
2 f BP ( n; ,sin )
MN 1
2

TABLE III. MIMO-SAR SYSTEM PARAMETERS

Parameters
Waveform
Wavelength
Bandwidth
Number of transmit channels M
Number of receive channels N
Spacing of dense array d
Effective aperture length

Values
Orthogonal FMCW
18 mm
1 GHz
16
32
9 mm
2.3 m

( ,sin ) , i.e.,
f BP ( n; ,sin )
2 r ( n; , )
2t ( n; , )
4
= exp j
+j
j

IV. MIMO-SAR IMAGING STRATEGY




 
 





t ( n; 0 , 0 )

0 ,0

 






 
 





r ( n; 0 ,0 )

0 ,0

a

b

Fig. 3. Data acquisition geometry of MIMO-SAR. (a) far-field case; (b)

near-field case

In the far field case, the configuration in Fig. 2 (d) can be

approximated by an linear array, with MN channels and a
spacing of d / 2 , as shown in Fig. 3 (a). The focusing of the
scene echoes can be easily achieved by DBF method. However,
2L2
, the
when the targets are in the near field, i.e., 0 <

aforementioned approximation becomes invalid, and thus BP

algorithm would be a more suitable choice [10]-[12]. The
imaging geometry in near field is shown in Fig. 3 (b). The
receive signal (after range compression) can be expressed by
sr ( , n; 0 , 0 )

( n; 0 , 0 ) + r ( n; 0 , 0 )

= pr t

2
(4)

2 r ( n; 0 , 0 )
2t ( n; 0 , 0 )
exp j
j
,

MN 1 MN 1
MN 1
is the index of
where n =
,
+ 1,
,
2
2
2
Tx/Rx pairs; pr () is the range envelope; t ( n; 0 ,0 ) and

r ( n; 0 ,0 )

(6)

Fig. 4 gives the point target simulation results. A single target

30
30
30
in near field at (a)
m,
m,
m , and in far field at (b)
3
3
3
3000 3000 3000
m,
m,
m is generated in order. The imaging

3
3
3
results are shown in Fig. 4 (a) and Fig. 4 (b), respectively. It
can be seen that the focusing performance is good no matter
where the target is located.
28.5

Range [m]





 
 

(5)

4
2 L
= pr ( 0 ) sinc
(sin sin 0 ) exp j 0

where f BP ( n; ,sin ) is the reference signal for pixel

2998.5

29

2999

29.5

2999.5

Range [m]

Aperture utilization

30
30.5

3000
3000.5

31

3001

31.5

3001.5

32

0.56

0.58
sin()
(a)

0.6

3002

0.56

0.58
sin()
(b)

0.6

Fig. 4. Imaging with a simulated point target. The targets location is (a)
in near field and (b) in far field.

Road

Road

Cellular structures

Reinforcing piers

Cellular
structures

Rails

Reinforcing piers

Rails

are the distances from target to transmit antenna

and to receive antenna, respectively. The process of back

projection can be given by

(a)

(b)

Fig. 5. GB-SAR experiment and imaging results. (a) Photo of the

observed scene; (b) SAR image.

A set of GB-SAR experimental data is here used to verify

the aforementioned imaging strategy. The system works at Ku
band, with a bandwidth of 1 GHz. The aperture length in use is
2.1m. Fig. 5 illustrates the observed scene in Fig. 5 (a) and the
imaging result in Fig. 5 (b), respectively. It can be seen that the

2015 IEEE 5th Asia-Pacific Conference on Synthetic Aperture Radar(APSAR)

299

main structures in the photos are clearly imaged in the SAR

image. The whole image has good focusing performance.

Z =

C2 _ n + a12 A2 _ n + a22 B2 _ n + p2

4 sin C

(11)

V. ACCURACY ANALYSIS
After MIMO-SAR imaging, each radar can sense the
targets deformation along its LOS direction. Thus, three
measurements along three LOSs can be achieved. According to
the geometry, the targets deform vector can be resolved. In
this section, the accuracy of this estimated vector will be
analysed. Fig. 6 shows the observation geometry. O is the
scene centre; A , B, and C are three radars. A and B are in x-O-y
plane; C is in x-O-z plane. The angles between x and OA, OB,
OC are A , B , and C , respectively. The targets deform
vector can be denoted by ( X , Y , Z ) . Let d A , d B , and dC

denote the deform sensed by A , B, and C, which satisfy

d A = X cos A + Y sin A

d B = X cos B + Y sin B
d = X cos + Z sin
C
C
C

(7)

However, the measurements di ( i = A, B, C ) are inevitably

affected by the atmospheric error and other errors as

( i _ def + i _ atm + i _ n ) , i = A, B, C (8)

4
where i _ def is the phase due to real deform along LOS;
i _ atm is the atmospheric phase error; i _ n is noise phase
di =

error. Taking (8) into (7), the accuracy of X , Y , and Z can

then be resolved as

X =

4 sin ( B A )

sin 2 B A2 _ atm + sin 2 B A2 _ n

+ sin A
2

2
B _ atm

+ sin A
2

(9)

2
B_n

+ sin A
2

2
B _ atm

+ sin A
2

(12)

From (9), (10), and (11), it can be seen that X , Y and

Z are closely related with the statistical characteristics of
atmospheric phase error and the phase noise error. The noise
phase is mainly determined by the correlation coefficient and
the number of looks [13][14]. In our case, the SNR is
commonly larger than 10 dB. The correlation coefficient can
be 0.9 or more (here 0.95 is assumed). The range processing
can have at least 16 looks. According to the relation
between i _ n and the number of looks, it is reasonable to
assume i _ n is 0.06 rad (3.6 deg). Another error component,
i.e., the atmospheric phase error, has a strong spatial coherency,
and therefore its correlation coefficient can be 0.9.
Considering the case of 18 mm wavelength and 0.1 mm
deform accuracy along LOS, it can be experimentally
demonstrated that the noise phase error can be 1 deg (0.0257
mm), and the atmospheric phase error can be 3.46 deg (0.089
mm). A simulation under the parameters in Table IV is carried
out, where the achieved accuracy is also followed. It can be
seen that the accuracy in x, y, and z are all better than 1 mm,
which satisfies the requirements in Table I very well.

Parameter
Position A
Position B
Position C
Targets
Position

4 sin ( B A )

sin 2 B A2 _ atm + sin 2 B A2 _ n

cos C sin B

a1 = sin ( sin )
B
A

a = cos C sin A
2 sin ( B sin A )
p2 equals to (13).

TABLE IV. MIMO-SAR SYSTEM PARAMETERS

2sin A sin B cov ( A _ atm , B _ atm )

X =

where a1 and a2 are

Values (m)
(1000, 25, 0)
(1000, -25, 0)
(1000, 0, 5)

Direction
LOS
x
y

Accuracy (mm)
0.092
0.089
1.0

(0, 0, 0)

0.93

(10)

2
B_n

2sin A sin B cov ( A _ atm , B _ atm )

C2 _ atm
cov ( A _ atm , C _ atm ) cov ( C _ atm , B _ atm ) 1

2
2

p = [1, a1 , a2 ] cov ( A _ atm , C _ atm )

A _ atm
cov ( A _ atm , B _ atm ) a1

cov ( C _ atm , B _ atm ) cov ( A _ atm , B _ atm )

a2
B2 _ atm

300

2015 IEEE 5th Asia-Pacific Conference on Synthetic Aperture Radar(APSAR)

(13)

VI. CONCLUSION
A deformation monitoring system based on multi-static
MIMO-SAR is proposed in this paper. In this system, three
spatially distributed MIMO-SARs, which can independently
sense the target deform along three LOSs, are used. A further
processing of the three measurements can give a good estimate
of the target real deform direction and the deform amount.
Furthermore, since the channels of each MIMO-SAR transmit
orthogonal waveforms simultaneously, the data acquisition
period can be so short that the time decorrelation is ignorable.
The deform measurement accuracy is thus can be improved.
Meanwhile, the short period can extend its application to
vibration measurement. In this paper, the system configuration
as well as the three dimensional deform measurement theory is
introduced. Issues about the MIMO-SAR array design and the
deformation measurement accuracy analysis are discussed in
detail. The MIMO-SAR imaging strategy is also given and
demonstrated both with simulated and experimental data. It has
been demonstrated that the measurement accuracy in three
dimensions can reach 0.1 mm ~ 1 mm.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China (NSFC) under grants 61427802,
61225005 and 61120106004, Chang Jiang Scholars Program
under grant T2012122, and 111 project of China under grant
B14010.
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