SAR image simulation of ocean surface based on electromagnetic scattering model

Abstract

SAR systems have played a huge role in ocean monitoring. However, the fast and reliable interpretation of SAR images is still a challenge. SAR image simulations of sea surface for different states facilitates a deeper understanding of the intrinsic scattering mechanism in SAR images. In this paper, based on an improved semi-deterministic facet method, SAR images of different marine environments are simulated by fast calculation of the sea surface scattering field. This approach is no longer sensitive to changes in both cutoff scale and surface element size and is suitable for SAR imaging of large size sea surface. The simulation results reasonably show the effects of the ocean scattering mechanism on the SAR images, which is helpful for the image analysis and interpretation.