Ionosphere Correction Algorithm for P-band Spaceborne SAR Imaging

The ionospheric effects can be a significant source of phase error in the P-band spaceborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) signal, causing a degeneration of the image quality. We analyze the background ionospheric effects on spaceborne SAR through modeling and simulation, and give the qualitative and quantitative analysis based on the spatiotemporal variability of ionosphere. A novel ionosphere correction algorithm (ICA) is proposed to deal with the ionospheric effects on the P-band spaceborne SAR imaging. With the proposed algorithm, the degradation of image quality caused by the ionosphere is corrected. The simulation results confirm the validity of the proposed algorithm.