Analysis of the Ionospheric Scintillation Effects on GEO SAR Imaging

The ionospheric scintillation effects on GEO SAR imaging was analyzed. Firstly, according to the characteristics of the GEO SAR system, corresponding simulations were carried out to illustrate the particular effects of the ionosphere on the GEO SAR. Then, based on the multiple phase screen theory, the effect of random phase fluctuation phenomena caused by the ionosphere scintillation was simulated and analyzed on the quality of GEO SAR imaging. At last, the optimal accumulation time of the GEO SAR processing was presented under the condition of the ionospheric scintillation through Monte Carlo methods. Simulation results show that GEO SAR imaging become deteriorated and even defocused when the scintillation is severe and the synthetic aperture time is much longer.