SarComms is a new communication method that enables passive satellite backscatter connectivity using existing spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) signals. We demonstrate that SAR signals from the European Space Agency's Sentinel-1 satellite, used for imaging the Earth, can also be leveraged to enable ground-to-satellite connectivity. This paper presents the first cooperative, on-the-ground target that modulates SAR backscatter to send information bits and analyzes how to extract it from publicly available Sentinel-1 datasets. To demonstrate the system's feasibility, we evaluate the effectiveness of corner reflectors in the field, develop a deployment algorithm to optimize reflector placement and prototype modulating corner reflectors (both mechanically and electrically controlled) to change the amplitude of backscattered SAR signals.

翻译：SarComms是一种新型通信方法，它利用现有的星载合成孔径雷达信号实现无源卫星反向散射连接。我们证明，欧洲空间局"哨兵一号"卫星用于对地成像的合成孔径雷达信号，也可用于实现地面到卫星的连通性。本文首次提出一种合作式地面目标，通过调制合成孔径雷达反向散射来传输信息比特，并分析了如何从公开可获取的"哨兵一号"数据集中提取该信息。为验证系统可行性，我们评估了角反射器在实地场景中的有效性，开发了一种优化反射器部署的算法，并研制了机械控制和电控两种调制型角反射器样机，以改变合成孔径雷达反向散射信号的幅度。