An experimental and theoretical comparative study of RADAR Ka band backscatter

Ka-band may lead to important applications for the next generation of SAR spaceborne sensors (e.g.: DEM, disaster management, GMTI, subsidence, ocean currents, vegetation height). Nevertheless, the lack of trusted references on backscatter at Ka-band revealed to be the main limitation for the investigation of future applications. The paper, supported by the ESA project “Ka-band SAR backscatter analysis in support of future applications”, is aimed at studying the wave interaction at Ka-band for a widely varying range of targets in order to define a set of well calibrated and reliable KA-band backscatter coefficients. Here, we propose several examples of backscatter data resulting from a critical survey of available datasets at Ka-band. The reliability of the results will be assessed via a preliminary comparison with Electromagnetic Models (EM).