Error analysis of angle inverse RCS for millimeter wave SAR radiometric calibration

Abstract

The spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) has the capability of high-precision, all-weather, all-time and large-area remote sensing imaging, so it plays an important role in forestry, geology, ocean, hydrology, agriculture, military reconnaissance, mapping and other fields. Usually, a certain number of passive and active equipment are deployed in the calibration field to realize the radiometric calibration and geometric correction of SAR images. The corner reflector has a relatively stable, large radar cross section, and displays a 3dB beam width independent of wavelength and size. Therefore, it becomes a commonly used passive calibration equipment in SAR radiation calibration. Corner reflectors can be used not only as reference point targets for SAR image radiometric calibration, but also as ground control points for SAR image geometric correction. This paper analyzes the radar cross section (RCS) error of the corner reflector used in the spaceborne millimeter wave SAR radiometric calibration, and the simulation results can be used as the theoretical guidance for the actual use of the corner reflector.