Validation of a sea surface model for simulations of dynamic maritime SAR images

Controllable maritime scenarios have become a central issue in the research of new applications of SAR imaging to vessel monitoring systems. Numerical tools such as GRECOSAR, a SAR simulator of complex targets, are able to provide suitable test-beds as long as the model of the targets (vessels) and the sea surface resemble to what is expected in real maritime scenes. This paper presents the validation of SAR simulated images from GRECOSAR while using a dynamic and multi-harmonic elevation model of the sea surface. The simulations are carried out for generic C- and X-band SAR sensors. The results of the co-polar channels are compared with K, lognormal, Weibull and Rayleigh distributions, which are commonly used to describe statistics of real SAR images of the sea surface. The results show that the clutter has statistics closer to the K and Weibull distributions, suggesting that the elevation model presented can provide a more realistic approach in simulating SAR images of maritime scenarios.