Raw Signal Simulator for SAR With Trajectory Deviation Based on Spatial Spectrum Analysis

Abstract

This paper presents a whole new method for simulating a raw signal of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) with trajectory deviation. In this paper, a SAR raw signal is viewed as a spatial function in terms of radar location, at a fixed range frequency component of the radar signal. It is disclosed and verified that the SAR raw signals is band limited from the perspective of spatial spectrum analysis. Based on this finding, SAR raw signals under condition of trajectory deviation are obtained by interpolating the SAR raw signal along a set of ideally linear trajectories. The unprecedent performance achieved by the new method mainly includes the following. First, it provides a way to update existing simulators designed for ideally linear trajectory, giving them the capability to take trajectory deviation into consideration. Second, it is an efficient SAR raw signal simulator whose validity limit is greatly expanded compared with existing efficient simulators, as many constraints are eliminated without sacrificing computational efficiency or phase accuracy. Third, it is a uniform framework applicable for multiple SAR acquisition modes. Finally, the computational complexity of Monte Carlo experiment under various trajectory deviations is dramatically reduced, at the expense of storage memory requirement. Theoretical analyses are demonstrated by experimental results.