Internal clutter motion impact on the long integration GEOSAR acquisition

In this paper, the impact of the internal clutter motion in GEOSAR acquisitions is analyzed. A nearly zero inclination with low eccentricity geosynchronous orbit is considered and, therefore, long integration, in order of 20-30 min (for 1-2 Km resolution) or even hours (for tenths of meters resolution), is required in order to reach the desired synthetic aperture length and the required along-track resolution. Moderate transmitted powers and antenna sizes are considered in the analysis. The power link budget of a long integration GEOSAR acquisition is presented and the limitations imposed by the clutter decorrelation are studied. The minimum target RCS to assure the correct performance of the system under clutter interference scenarios is evaluated. Finally, experimental data from Ground Based SAR X-band acquisitions will be used to validate the Billingsley model in long integration acquisitions.