A Full-link SAR Simulator for Ocean Remote Sensing

It is challenging to accurately interpret the ocean wave on SAR images, which is mainly because the scattering of moving waves is the synthesis of various complex mechanisms, and SAR imaging is a unique nonlinear mapping relationship. In this paper, we present a full-link simulation method to simulate the main parts of ocean surface scattering, ocean surface motion, platform motion, echo generation and acquisition, SAR imaging and so on. This method reflects the dynamic characteristics of ocean surface by simulating the movement and the decoherence effect of scattering points within each radar pulse. Therefore, the main modulation mechanism and nonlinear phenomena on the SAR imaging of moving ocean surface can be described more accurately. Sentinel-1 wave mode SAR images and buoy data of corresponding region and time were used for the experiment. The satellite platform data and buoy wave spectrum were input into the simulator, and it was found that the simulated SAR image spectrum was in good agreement with the real SAR image spectrum.