RaySAR - 3D SAR simulator: Now open source

RaySAR, a 3D SAR simulator, has been made accessible to the SAR community in January 2016. It helps to understand and analyze reflection effects of radar signals at 3D object models. For instance, the nature of persistent scatterers or “ghost” scatterers at man-made structures or basic reflection effects at canonical shapes can be interpreted in more detail. The decision to provide RaySAR to the community was based on the persisting lack of a freely available SAR simulation package and the repetitive interpretation task related to the analysis of SAR imagery, especially in the context of high resolution data. Many signal reflection effects at objects remain to be discovered and explained. New interfaces between simulation techniques and SAR applications may be helpful. In this context, the paper provides a summary of the status-quo of RaySAR and addresses future directions that have not been followed so far.