Effect Analysis of Antenna Vibration on GEO SAR Image

Abstract

Existing effect analyses of antenna vibration (AV) on synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image, which are all aimed for low-earth-orbit SAR and based on the linear trajectory, second-order azimuth spectrum, and range time-invariant as well as azimuth time-variant antenna gain, are not feasible in geosynchronous SAR (GEO SAR), because GEO SAR has an obviously curved trajectory, high-order azimuth spectrum, and two-dimensional (2-D) time-variant antenna gain. To overcome these problems and analyze the effects of AV on GEO SAR image, a modified analysis is proposed in this paper. First, based on the curved trajectory, the high-order ideal echo signal model and the ideal point spread function (PSF) of GEO SAR are, respectively, established and deducted, and the AV that consists of antenna translational vibration (ATV) and antenna rotation motion (ARV) and the 2-D time-variant antenna gain in squint mode are also, respectively, modeled. Then, based on the series expansion, the paired echo theory, and the aforementioned models, the echo signal model affected by ATV, the corresponding PSF affected by ATV, the antenna gain model affected by ARV, and the corresponding PSF affected by ARV are obtained, and the effects of ATV and ARV on GEO SAR image are, respectively, analyzed in detail. Compared with existing effect analyses of AV on SAR image, the modified analysis considers the influences of curved trajectory, high-order azimuth spectrum, and 2-D time-variant antenna gain simultaneously, and it has much more accuracy and adaptability correspondingly. Finally, computer simulations validate the correctness of the proposed analysis.