Estimation of synthetic aperture radar modulation transfer function parameters with spotlight mode data

During SAXON-FPN spotlight mode Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data was collected of ocean surface waves under different environmental conditions and imaging geometries. From this data, estimates can be derived for the values of three ocean surface parameters of importance to SAR imaging: (1) the range of radial velocities within a SAR resolution cell; (2) the magnitude of the real transfer function; and (3) the phase of the real transfer function. The real transfer function relates surface wave height modulations to modulations in radar cross section. In this paper the author describes a procedure to estimate these parameters from the spotlight data and show results from the SAXON-FPN data. For certain imaging geometries the parameter estimates are consistent with previous in situ measurements.<>