SAR Image Simulation of Steering Kelvin Wake on Sea Surface With Breaking Waves

Aiming at synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging of ship-induced steering wake in the presence of breaking waves, this letter presents a composite electromagnetic (EM) and hydrodynamic modeling approach, combining theoretical analysis with computational fluid dynamics (CFDs) simulations. Using faceted two-scale model (TSM) combined with breaking wave theory, the Bragg scattering and non-Bragg scattering components are calculated, respectively, to obtain the spatial distribution of scattering coefficients for the composite scene with breaking waves. On this basis, the SAR image of the composite scene with breaking waves is obtained by combining the modulation transfer function (MTF) model with the velocity bunching (VB) model. Simulations indicate that distinctive Kelvin wake characteristics can be observed in SAR images in the presence of breaking waves, which is basically consistent with the measured SAR images obtained by the Gaofen-3 and TerraSAR-X satellites, validating the physical consistency of the proposed model and its effectiveness in SAR imaging simulation.