Synthetic aperture radar data compression and transmission

1. A method of obtaining, preparing, and transmitting complex-valued array data representing an image, the method comprising:

obtaining, by an electronic processor, via a network interface communicatively coupled to a transceiver, an electronic representation of an array of complex numbers, wherein the array of complex numbers represents an image;

converting, by an electronic processor, the array of complex numbers to an array of scaled coordinate pair values in a magnitude-phase plane;

replacing, by an electronic processor, each coordinate pair value with data representing a respective nearest node in a quantized magnitude-phase plane, whereby an array of scaled quantized coordinate value pairs is produced;

arranging, by an electronic processor, into a sequence of bit values ordered according to decreasing bit significance, from most-significant bit values to least-significant bit values, the scaled quantized coordinate value pairs; and

transmitting the sequence of bit values to a receiver, whereby the receiver rearranges and rescales the sequence of bit values and obtains the image represented by the array of complex numbers.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the obtaining comprises obtaining synthetic aperture RADAR data acquired by a mobile airborne platform.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the transmitting comprises transmitting: a scaling factor associated with the array of scaled quantized coordinate pair values, and data sufficient to map the data representing a respective nearest node to a respective point in a magnitude-phase plane.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the converting, replacing, and arranging are performed by an electronic processor comprising at least one hardware parallel processing device, the at least one hardware parallel processing device comprising a plurality of processing cores.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising gathering information about an object for targeting purposes based on the image represented by the array of complex numbers.

6. A method of receiving, decompressing, and processing complex-valued array data representing an image, the method comprising:

receiving via a network interface communicatively coupled to a transceiver, an electronic representation of a sequence of bit values representing an image, wherein the sequence of bit values are ordered according to decreasing bit significance, from most-significant bit values to least-significant bit values;

rearranging, by an electronic processor, the sequence of bit values into an array of scaled quantized coordinate value pairs;

converting, by an electronic processor, the array of scaled quantized coordinate value pairs to an array of complex numbers; and

displaying, on a computer monitor, an image represented by the array of complex numbers.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the receiving comprises receiving data derived from synthetic aperture RADAR data acquired by a mobile airborne platform.

8. The method of claim 6 , wherein the receiving comprises receiving: a scaling factor associated with the array of scaled quantized coordinate pair values, and data sufficient to map the data representing a respective nearest node to a respective point in a magnitude-phase plane.

9. The method of claim 6 , wherein the converting is performed by an electronic processor comprising at least one hardware parallel processing device, the at least one hardware parallel processing device comprising a plurality of processing cores.

10. The method of claim 6 , further comprising gathering information about an object for targeting purposes based on the image represented by the array of complex numbers.

11. A system for obtaining, preparing, and transmitting complex-valued array data representing an image, the system comprising:

a network interface comprising an electronic processor, communicatively coupled to a transceiver, and configured to obtain an electronic representation of an array of complex numbers, wherein the array of complex numbers represents an image; and

at least one electronic processor configured to:

convert the array of complex numbers to an array of scaled coordinate pair values in a magnitude-phase plane;

replace each coordinate pair value with data representing a respective nearest node in a quantized magnitude-phase plane, whereby an array of scaled quantized coordinate value pairs is produced; and

arrange into a sequence of bit values ordered according to decreasing bit significance, from most-significant bit values to least-significant bit values, the scaled quantized coordinate value pairs;

wherein the transceiver is configured to transmit the sequence of bit values to a receiver, whereby the receiver rearranges and rescales the sequence of bit values and obtains the image represented by the array of complex numbers.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the transceiver is configured to obtain synthetic aperture RADAR data acquired by a mobile airborne platform.

13. The system of claim 11 , wherein the transceiver is further configured to transmit: a scaling factor associated with the array of scaled quantized coordinate pair values, and data sufficient to map the data representing a respective nearest node to a respective point in a magnitude-phase plane.

14. The system of claim 11 , wherein the at least one electronic processor comprises at least one hardware parallel processing device, the at least one hardware parallel processing device comprising a plurality of processing cores.

15. The system of claim 11 , further comprising at least one processor configured to gather information about an object for targeting purposes based on the image represented by the array of complex numbers.

16. A system for receiving, decompressing, and processing complex-valued array data representing an image, the system comprising:

a network interface comprising an electronic processor, communicatively coupled to a transceiver, and configured to obtain an electronic representation of a sequence of bit values representing an image, wherein the sequence of bit values are ordered according to decreasing bit significance, from most-significant bit values to least-significant bit values;

at least one electronic processor configured to:

rearrange the sequence of bit values into an array of scaled quantized coordinate value pairs; and

convert the array of scaled quantized coordinate value pairs to an array of complex numbers; and

a computer monitor configured to display an image represented by the array of complex numbers.

17. The system of claim 16 , wherein the sequence of bit values represent a synthetic aperture RADAR image.

18. The system of claim 16 , wherein the transceiver is further configured to obtain: a scaling factor associated with the array of scaled quantized coordinate pair values, and data sufficient to map the data representing a respective nearest node to a respective point in a magnitude-phase plane.

19. The system of claim 16 , wherein the at least one electronic processor comprises at least one hardware parallel processing device, the at least one hardware parallel processing device comprising a plurality of processing cores.

20. The system of claim 16 , further comprising at least one processor configured to gather information about an object for targeting purposes based on the image represented by the array of complex numbers.