C-SAR spaceborne synthetic aperture radar raw data simulator

The C-SAR raw data simulator is a fundamental component of the C-band spaceborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) ground demonstration system being developed by China Aerospace Corporation (CASC). The simulator provides the demonstration system with the radar raw signal in real time, and further forms a complete data stream together with the onboard radar equipment and the ground signal processor. It will be used to verify and test the SAR system equipment during the system integration testing before practical launching. Besides of this, the simulator can also be used to evaluate the performance of the imaging algorithm. This paper introduces the design and implementation of the C-SAR raw data simulator in the context of the whole demonstration system. The computer simulation models for the raw data simulator are described. Finally, some results of the simulation experiment are given and their effective manipulation for verifying and test purposes are shown.