Modeling the factors affecting the imaging performance of synthetic aperture radars

Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is a radar imaging system used in many military and civilian areas today. Since the main component of the performance of these systems is the imaging capability, the factors affecting the imaging performance should be evaluated while designing the radar. In this study, first of all, the simulation of the SAR image of a point target deployed in the radar imaging area is handled in the MATLAB simulation environment. In this simulation, the target is illuminated by using the linear frequency modulation waveform and the reflected signals according to the target properties are brought to the signal processing steps with the heterodyne receiver structure. Within the signal processing steps, the SAR image of the point target is created by performing matched filtering for range compression and back projection method for cross range processing is implemented respectively. In the later parts of the study, the distortion effects of noise figure and group delay, which are among the hardware-induced factors affecting the performance of the SAR system, are examined on the target's range and cross-range accuracy, range and cross-range resolution, peak side lobe ratio and SAR image.