A method for focusing RAW simulated radar sounder data

Abstract

Radar sounders (RS) have the unique capability of providing direct measurements of subsurface structures. Due to the complex nature of subsurface acquisition scenarios, the RS design and data interpretation require the support of SAR focused electromagnetic simulations of the subsurface targets. While SAR focusing techniques applied to real RS data are well-established, the same techniques cannot be directly applied to the simulated radargrams, due to the inherent differences between the real data and the data simulation processing chains. In this paper, we approach this challenge by adopting a novel approach to the focusing of simulated raw RS data. In the proposed approach the main focusing parameters are extracted from the simulator impulse response to properly consider any artefact and the inherent assumptions exploited in the simulations. The method has been applied to previously published raw simulated radargrams of two RS instruments. The results show that the method provides good results for different target scenarios and RS instruments.