Unbeaten Team

Oujda | What on Earth is Synthetic Aperture Radar?

SAR is the power of ten

High-Level Project Summary

SAR data from space missions will provide an abundance of information that can be used to help scientists better understand the world around us. The tremendous impact this data can have will only be realized if the public understands the data and its potential. Our challenge is to help the public grasp the capabilities and potential of using SAR data and how we can benefit from it. Our path to this challenge is a short 5 minute video where we used our own animation and Arabic voices with English subtitles, all that with a vision to make non experts understand the potentials of SAR.

Link to Project "Demo"

https://mega.nz/file/abwGnaQB#gBUMWCMjgA4S4KWRCR8V1BhrNYFlzNHBOXLGRjINedY

Link to Final Project

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWi4wWxlHgg

Detailed Project Description

Of course any non-expert after reading just the name -SAR or Synthetic Aperture Radar- will panic and quit. For that reason, We will take you step by step toward the final stage where you will be able to understand and even more to be inspired and maybe continue the adventure in this subject.

Let’s start with imaging Radar. Imaging radar is an active illumination system. An antenna (or Aperture), mounted on a platform, transmits a radar signal in a side-looking (fig: b) direction towards the Earth's surface. The reflected signal, known as the echo, is backscattered from the surface and received a fraction of a second laterat the same antenna (monostatic radar).

For coherent radar systems such as Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), the amplitude and the phase of the received echo - which are used during the focusing process to construct the image - are recorded.

Now after knowing some basic things about SAR, we need first to say HI to his brother the Real Aperture Radar or RAR in short. I know a question that's in your mind right now :) What it's Aperture ? right!

Well, Aperture means the opening used to collect the reflected energy that is used to form an image. In the case of radar imaging this is the antenna.

For RAR systems, only the amplitude of each echo return is measured and processed. But for SAR it's the amplitude + the phase. That is what makes SAR the big brother of RAR.

There is something called The spatial resolution (which is a physical dimension that represents a pixel of the image) of RAR which is primarily determined by the size of the antenna used: the larger the antenna, the better the spatial resolution. Other determining factors include the pulse duration and the antenna beamwidth.

SAR takes advantage of the Doppler history of the radar echoes generated by the forward motion of the spacecraft to synthesise a large antenna.

This allows high azimuth resolution in the resulting image despite a physically small antenna. As the radar moves, a pulse is transmitted at each position. The return echoes pass through the receiver and are recorded in an echo store.

The benefits of SAR?

When we dive into the depths of SAR applications, we find ourselves in a sea without a beach. It has many uses and in many fields from all walks of life, we have borrowed from this abundant flow three applications, trying to diversify the target groups in order to spread awareness on the largest scale of citizens. Our speech targeted the simple peasant to highlight the essential role of SAR to Promote the national product. We also traveled to space on a journey with SAR who led her to paint a masterpiece about a nearby neighbor who is a stone's throw away, it is the planet Venus that we can enjoy seeing up close.

In the end, we concluded our research to reach the human depth in one of the applications that works to save humanity from the brutality of natural disasters

SAR for a better world.

“The art of simplicity is a puzzle of complexity,” said Doug Horton . We had to comprehend the subject and then begin the work. To do so we used our own animation and some video and voice editing softwares. In the process of making our video we used of course a bunch of NASA's, JAXA's resources and others like articles, real videos, images and statistics. Our vision and our main goal is first to make the public understand the potential of SAR’s data and more importantly: WE HOPE To inspire people around the globe.

Space Agency Data

We made sure to exploit as much data given by the Nasa and other space agencies to summarise the complicated subject that is Synthetic Aperture Radar,

Hackathon Journey

The Space Apps experience?

An Inspiring journey. We learned a lot in a brief amount of time, and met new people. It was a once in a lifetime experience.

What did you learn?

Not only did we learn about new subjects and technologies used all around us, but we also learned how to work in an efficient team, how to lead and be productive. We learned new ways of managing our time and organising, new techniques such as critical thinking to produce the most accurate and creative results, and lastly, how to use as much given data to analyse and create.

What inspired your team to choose this challenge?

We saw this challenge as an initiative, inviting more Arabic people to share similar content. We think that this won’t only raise awareness in the Arabic region, but will also help raise children who are passionate about their education, and about science. They will

become adults who find joy in learning, and then individuals who will know how to push their countries forward.

What was your approach to developing this project?

We started by understanding the challenge, then we dived into gathering all the information and the resources needed, then we divided the tasks between the team members to ensure the highest productivity in the shortest amount of time.

Is there anyone you'd like to thank and why?

Special thanks to our friends: Achraf Khaldi and Hadil Mhamdi, and families who provided huge support both mentally and financially, the organisers: Oualid Hafraoui, Hind Ghanem, Moustafa Mchichi, and Ayoub Odriss for their time, hard work, and immense support. We would like to also thank the American Space in Oujda, The American Language Center, and all the other sponsors.