Ray Tracing for Simulating Reflection Phenomena in SAR Images

This paper presents an approach for using backward ray tracing for simulating radar reflectivity maps. After explaining the simulation concept which consists of three parts - modeling, sampling and image generation - two applications are presented for showing the performance of the simulator. At first reflection contributions like single or multiple bounce are simulated for a modeled building and compared to a real TerraSAR-X image. It shows how the capability of separating different bounce levels in different layers can support the interpretation of the SAR image. Afterwards reflection effects caused by quasi-perfect specular reflection are detected for another building model by means of geometrical analysis. This is thought as input for advanced Persistent Scatterer (PS) Analysis, since PS typically appear due to such reflection effects.