In 1-D mirrored aperture synthesis (MAS), the antenna array arrangement and metal reflector are crucial in determining the rank of the transformation matrix. Accurate cosine visibility is achievable only when the transformation matrix is full rank. However, the anti-phase characteristic of the metal reflector introduces non-zero elements of “-1” into the matrix, leading to rank deficiency. This letter proposes a method of using artificial magnetic conductor (AMC) with in-phase reflection property instead of metal reflector to ensure that the transformation matrix only contains non-zero elements “1”. Based on this property, the rank of both linear and nonlinear arrays is verified. The results indicate that AMC can effectively enhance the rank of the transformation matrix, potentially achieving full rank. Additionally, further verification is performed on the reconstruction of trapezoidal extended source scene using two types of arrays. The results demonstrate that AMC-based 1-D MAS can achieve a low root-mean-square error (RMSE), significantly improving the quality of the reconstructed images.

To increase the spatial resolution of passive microwave radiometry, mirrored aperture synthesis (MAS) was presented. In this letter, the method of cosine visibility extension (CVE) is proposed to further enhance the spatial resolution of 1-D MAS. In the CVE method, a convolutional neural network (CNN) is used to learn the distribution of the cosine visibility (CV), specifically the relationship between the low- and high-frequency CV distributions of various scenes. Then, the high-frequency CVs are estimated by the CNN according to the low-frequency CVs obtained by MAS. The high- and low-frequency CVs are combined in MAS image reconstruction to enhance the spatial resolution of MAS. The simulation and experiment indicate that the CVE method can effectively enhance the spatial resolution of MAS.

In this paper, Mirrored Aperture Synthesis with tilting reflectors (MAS-T) is proposed to improve spatial resolution with fewer antennas for passive microwave remote sensing. The principle of MAS-T is given. The initial experimental results demonstrate that MAS-T can achieve higher spatial resolution with the same antenna array compared with conventional aperture synthesis.

Mirrored aperture synthesis (MAS) has been proposed as a novel interferometry to achieve higher spatial resolution in passive microwave remote sensing. The phase and amplitude errors for MAS are a crucial problem that has yet to be analyzed. In this letter, a model for the phase and amplitude errors is established. A correction method based on an external source is proposed to correct the phase and amplitude errors. An analysis of the position of the external source is performed by computing its impact on the radiometric accuracy of a reference scene. The imaginary parts of the cross correlations for MAS are analyzed for the first time. Simulations and experiments are carried out to demonstrate the effectiveness of the correction method.

In this letter, 1-D mirrored aperture synthesis with two tilted reflectors (1-D MAS-T) is proposed to improve the spatial resolution of an antenna array without extending its size. The principle of 1-D MAS-T is given. The size of the reflector is analyzed, and detailed calculation formulae is derived. Numerical simulations and experiments are carried out to illustrate the performance of 1-D MAS-T. The results demonstrate that 1-D MAS-T can achieve a higher spatial resolution than conventional aperture synthesis with the same antenna array.

The arrangement of the antenna array of the mirrored aperture synthesis (MAS) determines the transformation matrix for solving the cosine visibilities. When the transformation matrix is rank deficient, the solved cosine visibilities will introduce the rank-deficient error. For the two-dimensional mirrored aperture synthesis (2-D MAS), the existing literature has discussed the relationship between the arrangement of the antenna array and the rank-deficient error but has not proposed an array that can achieve a full rank transformation matrix, which is call the rank-full array (RFA). Based on a new method for calculating the rank of the transformation matrix and the literature on one-dimensional (1-D) RFAs, this paper proves that 2-D RFA cannot be obtained when the reflectors are all metal, and by introducing a reflector made of magnetic conductor, 2-D RFA can be obtained. Besides, this paper obtained the existence conditions for 2-D RFA. Based on those conditions, two methods are proposed to obtain 2-D RFAs.

The antenna array arrangement determines the rank of the transformation matrix in 1-D mirrored aperture synthesis (1-D MAS). Only when the transformation matrix is of full rank can cosine visibilities be precisely solved from the transformation equations. However, the existing literature states that full rank cannot be realized with the default perpendicular polarization of antennas. In this letter, the transformation matrices of arrays with various polarizations of antennas are discussed, and a type of full array with a full-rank transformation matrix is found. Based on these results, the existence conditions for an array with a full-rank transformation matrix are obtained. In addition, a search algorithm with a shorter search time than the existing algorithm is designed to find low-redundancy arrays with a full-rank transformation matrix. The simulations verify that cosine visibilities are precisely solved from the transformation equations for the array with a full-rank transformation matrix.

The mirrored aperture synthesis radiometer (MASR) has been proposed for high-resolution observation in recent years. Since the MASR is a kind of linear system, the matrix reconstruction method should be an alternative for image reconstruction of a practical MASR. However, the matrix reconstruction method is neither theoretically analyzed nor experimentally validated at present, and the performance of the matrix reconstruction method for a MASR in practical applications is still unknown. In this letter, the H-matrix reconstruction method including the truncated singular value decomposition (SVD) and Tikhonov regularization, not yet applied to a MASR, is introduced. Then, the numerical simulations and imaging experiments are performed to validate the presented method, and the performance of the presented method is also shown. Finally, the comparisons between the presented method and the cosine-transform-based iterative method are made in the view of imaging experiments. The H-matrix reconstruction method is more convenient in the situation of a small MASR with a small alias-free field of view (FOV).

The demand for high-precision sea surface temperature (SST) has been growing rapidly in recent years because SST is one of the key parameters to describe the thermal state of the sea surface. This article analyzes the differences between microwave remote sensing and infrared remote sensing for SST, including the spatial resolution difference and the penetration depth difference. In order to improve the accuracy of retrieved SST, this article proposes a joint inversion algorithm for SST from combining microwave brightness temperature (BT) and infrared BT, which has also taken the influence of wind speed and atmosphere into consideration. Experiments confirm that SST data obtained from the joint inversion algorithm are more accurate than those obtained from the existing inversion algorithms.

Setting two reflectors perpendicular to each other and an array produces mirrored aperture synthesis (MAS), which obtains a higher spatial resolution than aperture synthesis (AS) for the same antenna array. The proposal of the MAS theory and the experimental verification suggest that the spatial resolution can be improved by setting the reflector. This paper proposes a method in which four tilted planar reflectors are set around an antenna array. This method is named two-dimensional (2-D) mirrored aperture synthesis with four tilted planar reflectors (2-D MAS-T). Because 2-D MAS-T uses more reflectors than MAS, the spatial resolution is further improved. The principle of 2-D MAS-T with an antenna array is given in this paper. The relationship between the size of the reflectors, the spatial resolution and the field of view (FOV) is obtained. The simulation and experimental results demonstrate that 2-D MAS-T can achieve a higher spatial resolution with the same antenna array than 2-D AS and 2-D MAS.

In mirrored aperture synthesis (MAS), the existing brightness temperature image reconstruction methods include inverse cosine transform and impulse matrix reconstruction methods. However, the quality of the MAS brightness temperature images reconstructed by the existing methods is still poor and needs to be improved. This article proposes a method of MAS brightness temperature image reconstruction with deep convolutional neural network (CNN). The network includes two fully connected (FC) layers, multiple convolutional layers, and deconvolutional layers, which realize the image reconstruction for MAS. This method uses deep CNN to learn the MAS image reconstruction mapping and system errors, so as to improve the performance of the brightness temperature image reconstruction. Both simulation and experimental results verify that the performance of the proposed MAS-CNN method is better than the existing MAS image reconstruction methods.

In 2-D mirrored aperture synthesis (2-D MAS), the array configuration determines the rank of the transformation matrix, which can affect the accuracy of the solved cosine visibilities. Ultimately, errors in solved cosine visibilities degrade the quality of reconstructed brightness temperature images. In this letter, the maximum rank of the transformation matrix is analyzed and proven by mathematical induction. An array optimization model of 2-D MAS based on the “maximum-rank” criterion is established, and optimal arrays are presented. Finally, the simulations and experiments are carried out to demonstrate the effectiveness of the optimization model.

In two-dimensional mirrored aperture synthesis (2-D MAS), the rank of the transformation matrix can affect the accuracy of the solved cosine visibilities; therefore, it has an impact on the accuracy of the reconstructed brightness temperature image. In this article, the influence of the rank deficient on the accuracy of the reconstructed brightness temperature image of 2-D MAS is discussed. An analysis of the rank-deficient error is performed by computing its impact on the radiometric accuracy for a reference scene. Two correction methods based on multiple measurements are proposed to correct the rank-deficient error. The simulations and experiments are carried out to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods.

The mirrored aperture synthesis radiometer (MASR) has been proposed as a promising technique for Earth observation. However, considering the system imperfections, the cosine visibility function and the brightness temperature distribution do not constitute a cosine transform pair. The method to improve the quality of reconstructed brightness temperature images for a practical MASR has not yet been developed. In this article, the complete formulation of cosine visibility functions in a practical MASR is derived to better understand the measurement of a MASR with non-negligible effects of the system imperfections. The array factor of a practical MASR is analyzed. Then, the alias-free field of view (FOV) for a MASR is presented, and an iterative method is proposed to reconstruct the brightness temperature image in the alias-free FOV to reduce the computational burden. The numerical simulation and experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method can be applied to practical MASRs and that the reconstruction quality is significantly improved by the proposed method. Finally, the H-matrix inversion method is discussed as an alternative reconstruction method for a practical MASR. Compared with the H-matrix inversion method, the proposed method is more convenient for practical applications.

Aperture synthesis technique is able to provide high spatial resolution without requiring very large and massive real aperture. Recently, in addition to the well-known aperture synthesis radiometer, the concept of mirrored aperture synthesis has been proposed, and the experiments has been carried out to validate this technique. However, the field of view (FOV) of a mirrored aperture synthesis radiometer (MASR) has not been analyzed. In this paper, the FOV of an one-dimensional MASR is analyzed based on the symmetric convolution. A simulation and experiment are carried out to validate the derived FOV. The FOV of a two-dimensional MASR can be analyzed in the same way.

The concept, principle, and method of microwave radiometric imaging with mirrored aperture synthesis (MAS) were proposed by the Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), Wuhan, China. MAS can achieve higher spatial resolution without extending the size of the antenna array. However, the MAS principle has not been sufficiently validated by practical experiments. To solve this problem, an innovative experiment system of MAS at the V-band (MAS-V) has been developed by HUST. Experiments on the interference fringe pattern, spatial resolution, as well as the imaging of an electric warmer and the absorbing material in the styrofoam box filled with liquid nitrogen are performed. The initial experimental results demonstrate that MAS can achieve higher spatial resolution with the same antenna array compared with the conventional AS. For MAS, the experimental results are consistent with theory and simulation results.

Mirrored aperture synthesis (MAS) has been proposed to utilize a few antennas to provide high spatial resolution for atmospheric remote sensing. In order to verify the fundamentals of mirrored aperture synthesis (MAS) further, a prototype working at V band was developed in the past two years. In this paper, the prototype is briefly introduced, and then some indoor experiments and the experimental results for one-dimensional MAS based on the prototype are presented, mainly including the fringe pattern experiment for verifying the correlation output and the imaging experiment based on two point sources for evaluating the spatial resolution of MAS.

Mirrored Aperture Synthesis (MAS) was proposed to improve spatial resolution for passive microwave remote sensing. However, the MAS theory needs experimental verification. In this paper, an Experimental System of MAS (MAS-V) at V frequency band is introduced, which is developed for verifying the principle and performance of MAS. MAS-V is composed of an antenna array, reflectors, a receiving channel array, a synchronous acquisition subsystem, a computing server, and a rotatory platform. The initial experimental results demonstrate that the principle of MAS is valid. The experimental spatial resolutions are consistent with the theoretic spatial resolutions.