Degrading effects of the lower atmosphere on long-range airborne synthetic aperture radar imaging

The imaging performance of airborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems has advanced to the point that the effects of clear-air refractive index perturbations cannot be ignored. Operating at long ranges, and low grazing angles, in particular, require propagation geometries through regions of the lower atmosphere that may cause noticeable and, sometimes, severe degradation of the images. The range of image anomalies that can be attributed to the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) is illustrated, the pertinent characteristics of the ABL is discussed, a first-order SAR imaging model that incorporates the refractive index perturbations associated with the ABL is developed and the magnitude of the image anomalies resulting from measured refractive index perturbations is estimated. The model predictions correlate well with the observed image anomalies and measured properties of the ABL. On the basis of theory and measurements, it is expected that the degrading effect of clear-air atmospheric refractive index perturbations is much more common than previously thought and may be a limiting factor for long-range SAR imaging performance.