DIFFERENTIAL FARADAY ROTATION AND POLARIMETRIC SAR

作者：Gilman Mikhail^*; Tsynkov Semyon

来源：SIAM Journal on Applied Mathematics, 2018, 78(3): 1422-1449.

DOI：10.1137/17M114042X

• inverse scattering
• scattering matrix
• gyrotropy
• electromagnetic waves
• polarization
• rotation of polarization plane
• radar signal bandwidth
• radar ambiguity theory
• polarimetric matched filter
• Earth's ionosphere
• magnetic field of the Earth

The propagation of linearly polarized electromagnetic waves through the Earth's ionosphere is accompanied by Faraday rotation (FR), which is due to gyrotropy of the ionospheric plasma in the magnetic field of the Earth. FR may cause distortions of the images taken by space-borne polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (SAR). We show that the mechanism of those distortions is related to the variation of the FR angle within the bandwidth of the interrogating signals sent by the radar. This effect has not been analyzed previously in the context of SAR imaging. We also propose a special matched filter that we call the polarimetric matched filter (PMF). The PMF helps correct the FR-induced distortions and provides a provably superior SAR performance compared to the case of the traditional polarimetric SAR signal processing.

• 出版日期2018