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Main Authors: Giovagnoli, Alessandro, Huber, Sigurd, Krieger, Gerhard
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.20811
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author Giovagnoli, Alessandro
Huber, Sigurd
Krieger, Gerhard
author_facet Giovagnoli, Alessandro
Huber, Sigurd
Krieger, Gerhard
contents Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is a well established technology in the field of Earth remote sensing. Over the years, the resolution of SAR images has been steadily improving and the pixel count increasing as a result of advances in the sensor technology, and so have the computational resources required to process the raw data to a focused image. Because they are a necessary step in the study of the retrieved data, new high-resolution and low-complexity focusing algorithms are constantly explored in the SAR literature. The theory of quantum computing proposes a new computational framework that might allow to process a vast amount of data in a more efficient way. Relevant to our case is the advantage proven for the quantum Fourier transform (QFT), the quantum counterpart of a fundamental element of many SAR focusing algorithms. Motivated by this, in this work we propose a quantum version of the range-Doppler algorithm. We show how in general reference functions, a key element in many SAR focusing algorithms, can be mapped to quantum gates; we present the quantum circuit performing the SAR raw data focusing and we discuss in detail its computational complexity. We find that the core of the quantum range-Doppler algorithm has a computational complexity, namely the number of single- and two-qubit gates, of $O(N)$, less than its classical counterpart with computational complexity $O(N \log N)$.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2504_20811
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A Quantum Range-Doppler Algorithm for Synthetic Aperture Radar Image Formation
Giovagnoli, Alessandro
Huber, Sigurd
Krieger, Gerhard
Quantum Physics
Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is a well established technology in the field of Earth remote sensing. Over the years, the resolution of SAR images has been steadily improving and the pixel count increasing as a result of advances in the sensor technology, and so have the computational resources required to process the raw data to a focused image. Because they are a necessary step in the study of the retrieved data, new high-resolution and low-complexity focusing algorithms are constantly explored in the SAR literature. The theory of quantum computing proposes a new computational framework that might allow to process a vast amount of data in a more efficient way. Relevant to our case is the advantage proven for the quantum Fourier transform (QFT), the quantum counterpart of a fundamental element of many SAR focusing algorithms. Motivated by this, in this work we propose a quantum version of the range-Doppler algorithm. We show how in general reference functions, a key element in many SAR focusing algorithms, can be mapped to quantum gates; we present the quantum circuit performing the SAR raw data focusing and we discuss in detail its computational complexity. We find that the core of the quantum range-Doppler algorithm has a computational complexity, namely the number of single- and two-qubit gates, of $O(N)$, less than its classical counterpart with computational complexity $O(N \log N)$.
title A Quantum Range-Doppler Algorithm for Synthetic Aperture Radar Image Formation
topic Quantum Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.20811