Multiple mode SAR raw data simulation for GaoFen-3 mission evaluation

GaoFen-3 is China's first meter-level multi-polarization Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite with scientific and commercial applications, which was developed by the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST) and had been launched in August, 2016. The SAR instrument and ground data processing system were developed by the Institute of Electronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IECAS). It employs a multi-polarization C-band SAR based on active phased array technology, which allows flexible beam operations in azimuth scanning, range scanning, right looking and left looking. Hence, GaoFen-3 has 12 imaging modes, covering the traditional Stripmap mode, ScanSAR mode, and the emerging Wave mode and Sliding Spotlight mode, and is a SAR satellite with the most abundant imaging modes in the world. In order to evaluate the imaging performance of these modes, the multiple mode SAR raw data simulation is highly demanded. In the paper, the simulation framework, the simulation algorithms and the evaluation strategies will be briefly introduced to expose how the raw data simulation guarantees the development of GaoFen-3 and its processing system.