Space-variant analysis and target echo simulation of geosynchronous SAR

Abstract

The geosynchronous synthetic aperture radar (GEO SAR) echo simulation has an important significance for GEO SAR system design and image algorithm verification. The study discusses the main steps of the GEO SAR echo simulation process and the calculation of key parameters. At the same time, because GEO SAR has a high orbital altitude and a long-time delay, the error caused by the ‘go-stop-go’ hypothesis must be taken into account. For this reason, the authors have studied the slant range iterative model without the assumption. It is used to calculate the distance between the satellite and target in the echo simulation. Experimental results show that the method is effective and feasible. Based on this, the space variant characteristics of GEO SAR are analysed in detail. It can be seen that the echo signals do not satisfy the range and azimuth invariance.