METHOD OF AIRBORNE SAR RADIATION CALIBRATION BASED ON POINT TARGET

Abstract. Radiation calibration of airborne SAR images is the basis for realizing the quantitative processing of airborne SAR images. Radiation calibration based on point targets is a general and convenient method. However, high precision is still the goal of improving the current point target SAR radiation calibration. For the key technology of high-precision radiation calibration processing for airborne SAR images, this paper uses the integral method and the peak method to calculate the point target radiation response energy, By analysing the radiation characteristics of the SAR image and comparing the methods, the sinc function model is used to fit the corrected antenna pattern. Combined with the radar power equation to solve the calibration constant, the complete point target radiation calibration method and process are established, and the different methods in the key technology are compared and analysed. The results show that the calibration method combined with the energy calculation model of the integral method and the sinc function antenna pattern correction model can achieve higher relative and absolute calibration accuracy. The optimized method can meet and exceed the requirements for radiometric calibration accuracy for high-resolution airborne SAR applications.