High resolution SAR performance limitation by the change of tropospheric refractivity

Author

Jinping, Sun ; Yuekai, Bi ; Yanping, Wang ; Wen, Hong

Author_Institution

Sch. of Electron. & Inf. Eng., Beihang Univ., Beijing, China

Volume

2

fYear

2011

fDate

24-27 Oct. 2011

Firstpage

1448

Lastpage

1451

Abstract

The imaging performance of high resolution airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) system can be affected by phase errors resulted from the change in refractive index in the troposphere. Using the Hopfield model, we analyze the change in tropospheric refractivity, and give a calculation method for the apparent range between radar and a ground target. The mechanism in which the change in refractive index affects the high resolution airborne SAR performance is also analyzed. With a numerical calculation method, the maximum detection ranges of X-band and Ku-band SAR with different resolutions are obtained, and effects of the atmospheric refraction on the SAR image focusing are studied by simulations.

Keywords

airborne radar; electromagnetic wave refraction; radar imaging; radar resolution; refractive index; synthetic aperture radar; tropospheric electromagnetic wave propagation; Hopfield model; Ku-band SAR; SAR image focusing; X-band SAR; atmospheric refraction; high resolution SAR performance limitation; high resolution airborne synthetic aperture radar system; numerical calculation method; phase errors; radar imaging system; refractive index; tropospheric refractivity; Atmospheric modeling; Image resolution; Imaging; Radar imaging; Radar polarimetry; Refractive index; SAR; atmospheric refractivity; high resolution; imaging performance;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Radar (Radar), 2011 IEEE CIE International Conference on

Conference_Location

Chengdu

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-8444-7

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/CIE-Radar.2011.6159833

Filename

6159833