Geodaysit 2023

In the field of Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR), the lack of stable and coherent natural targets can threat the effectiveness of InSAR applications. To overcome this issue, active and passive radar reflectors, which enhance the radar signals backscattering toward radar platforms, are designed. Among the others, passive radar reflectors are very diffused electromagnetic structures due to their low-cost of construction and maintenance. The present study aims at investigating passive radar reflectors focusing on the simulation of their Radar Cross Sections (RCS), which is the measure of a target's capacity to reflect radar signals in the direction of the radar receiver. RCS are simulated by the software CST Studio Suite® varying the microwave incident angle for each considered passive radar reflectors. Results are validated by comparing the RCS peak values simulated by the software CST Studio Suite® with those evaluated by formulas of canonical passive radar reflectors. As the most diffuse operational SAR satellite missions are in C-band (e.g., Copernicus Sentinel-1 and CSA RADARSAT constellations), X-band (e.g., ASI COSMO-SkyMed/COSMO-SkyMed Second Generation missions, and DLR TerraSAR-X/TanDEM-X constellation), and L-band (e.g., JAXA ALOS-2 and CONAE SAOCOM missions), RCS simulations related to plane electromagnetic microwave take into consideration them as reference frequencies. Advantages and disadvantages of passive radar reflectors are highlighted and discussed in terms of the main characteristics of current SAR satellite missions, as well as their visibility on different passes (Ascending/Descending), look sides (Right/Left) and orbital planes (Sun-Synchronous Orbit or Mid-Inclination Orbit).

Acknowledgements - This work is carried out in the framework of the project: “Monitoraggio di spostamenti con transponder RADAR”, granted by Regional Government of Puglia Region, RIPARTI project number 2a171b1e.