Spaceborne SIMO-SAR for three-dimensional ionospheric irregularity sounding

Ionospheric irregularity sounding is of significant importance in compensating for ionospheric scintillation effects on satellite communication, navigation, and remote sensing systems at lower frequencies, i.e., L band, P band, etc. A novel spaceborne nadir-looking single input and multiple outputs synthetic aperture radar (SAR) scheme is proposed for three-dimensional (3D) sounding of ionospheric irregularities. The 3D radar echo signal model is developed by examining the ionospheric effects on electromagnetic radar waveforms. These echoes can be used to produce 3D global maps of the distribution of ionospheric irregularities by means of a novel 3D SAR image formation algorithm. The effectiveness of the proposed SAR system was verified by means of computer simulations. The simulation results show that the proposed system has the capability to generate a 3D high-precision image of ionospheric irregularities with an altitude resolution as high as 0.9 km, an along-track resolution as high as 0.4 km, and an across-track angular resolution of 0.25.

[1]  Jun Liu,et al.  Ionospheric effects on SAR imaging: a numerical study , 2003, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens..

[2]  Bodo W. Reinisch,et al.  Radio sounding in space: magnetosphere and topside ionosphere , 2001 .

[3]  R. Grenfell,et al.  Refining the Klobuchar ionospheric coefficients based on GPS observations , 2008, IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems.

[4]  Delphine Cerutti-Maori,et al.  Image quality analysis of the vibrating sparse MIMO antenna array of the airborne 3D imaging radar ARTINO , 2007, 2007 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium.

[5]  A. Brenner,et al.  ARTINO: A New High Resolution 3D Imaging Radar System on an Autonomous Airborne Platform , 2006, 2006 IEEE International Symposium on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[6]  Paul S. Cannon,et al.  V/UHF space radars: spatial phase decorrelation of transionospheric signals in the equatorial region , 2010 .

[7]  Shaun Quegan,et al.  Calibration of Spaceborne CTLR Compact Polarimetric Low-Frequency SAR Using Mixed Radar Calibrators , 2011, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[8]  Franz J. Meyer,et al.  A statistical model of ionospheric signals in low-frequency SAR data , 2011, 2011 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium.

[9]  David Small,et al.  Measurement of Ionospheric Faraday Rotation in Simulated and Real Spaceborne SAR Data , 2009, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[10]  Bodo W. Reinisch,et al.  Investigations of irregularities in remote plasma regions by radio sounding: applications of the radio plasma imager on image , 2000 .

[11]  L. Alfonsi,et al.  Ionospheric irregularities, scintillation and its effect on systems , 2004 .

[12]  Jean-Fu Kiang,et al.  Reconstruction of Ionospheric Perturbation Induced by 2004 Sumatra Tsunami Using a Computerized Tomography Technique , 2009, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[13]  Evgeny D. Tereshchenko,et al.  Statistical tomography of subkilometer irregularities in the high‐latitude ionosphere , 2004 .

[14]  Paul S. Cannon,et al.  Effect of the ionosphere on defocusing of space‐based radars , 2009 .

[15]  Suman Ganguly,et al.  New generation topside sounder , 2001 .

[16]  Kai Liu,et al.  A Hybrid Reconstruction Algorithm for 3-D Ionospheric Tomography , 2008, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[17]  Yang Gao,et al.  Ionospheric modeling using GPS data , 2005 .

[18]  Keith M. Groves,et al.  Signal distortion on VHF/UHF transionospheric paths : First results from the Wideband Ionospheric Distortion Experiment , 2006 .

[19]  V. Eremenko,et al.  Investigation by backscatter radar of artificial irregularities produced in ionospheric plasma heating experiments , 1997 .

[20]  Jie Chen,et al.  A Novel Strategy for Topside Ionosphere Sounder Based on Spaceborne MIMO Radar with Fdcd , 2011 .

[21]  J. Aarons,et al.  Global morphology of ionospheric scintillations , 1971, Proceedings of the IEEE.

[22]  Keith M. Groves,et al.  Equatorial scintillation calculations based on coherent scatter radar and C/NOFS data , 2011 .

[23]  David Small,et al.  Measurement of Ionospheric TEC in Spaceborne SAR Data , 2010, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[24]  R. Giret,et al.  A study of a 3D-SAR concept for a millimeter wave imaging radar onboard an UAV , 2004, First European Radar Conference, 2004. EURAD..