Onboard Data Compression of Synthetic Aperture Radar Data: Status and Prospects

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) instruments on spacecraft are capable of producing huge quantities of data. Onboard lossy data compression is commonly used to reduce the burden on the communication link. In this paper an overview is given of various SAR data compression techniques, along with an assessment of how much improvement is possible (and practical) and how to approach the problem of obtaining it.