A generalized method of synthetic aperture radar echo simulation based on the theory of electromagnetic scattering

Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) echo simulation is an effective tool of the radar system design, which enables us to validate imaging algorithms and evaluate the performance of SAR systems before actual use. The increasing demand of higher SAR resolution makes the SAR simulation more and more complicated. The traditional simulation methods are not precise enough so that a new simulation method applicable to most complicated targets is needed. This paper demonstrates a novel simulation method based on the theory of electromagnetic scattering which simulates the received echo data through taking use of the backscattered electric field. Our simulation method can be used to simulate a complicated target in SAR simulation. This method opens a door to conducting SAR echo simulation with theory of signal and system and the electromagnetic scattering taken into consideration, though a few improvements are needed to increase the performance of the SAR simulation.