Analysing Perturbation Effects on Inclined Geosynchronous SAR Focusing

The operation of geosynchronous synthetic aperture radar (GEO SAR) will be impacted by orbit perturbations. As the orbit height arises, the influences become different from those in LEO SAR. In this paper, the perturbation impacts on GEO SAR orbital elements and the slant range histories are analyzed based on the Taylor expansion and Systems Tool Kit simulations. The perturbation will cause the first and second derivatives of the slant range variations, leading to the image drift and defocusing. Finally, point target simulations are performed to validate the theoretical analysis.