Circular and linear polarization inverse SAR imaging of simple deterministic targets and statistically known randomly rough surfaces using constant and varying illumination

In order to study mechanisms of scattering and their relative contributions to synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and inverse SAR images, a special measurement facility has been constructed. It can be used to generate images in which the target is illuminated from a constant direction as the receiver is rotated in azimuth, and the target is illuminated from various directions as the receiver is rotated in azimuth. The imaging system performance is discussed, and images obtained using both approaches are compared, for a variety of simple targets and statistically known randomly rough surfaces.