Software Defined Radar Simulator

Github software project “The Software Defined Radar Simulator” is designed to provide in SystemC an accurate simulation of commonly-used SDR blocks. These models provide both run-time and compile-time adjustable parameters. Currently these blocks include:

1. Phase Accumulator
2. CORDIC down-converter
3. CIC Filter (includes optional bit-pruning)
4. FIR Filter
5. Stimulus class to assist in test bench development
6. Signal Generator classes to assist in testing.
7. Recorder class to collect test output data.

Dependencies:

1. SystemC version 2.3 software.
2. Latest version of GCC.
3. Latest version of Boost libraries ( www.boost.org ).
4. Waf build tool.
5. Yaml-cpp version 0.5.1 software.

Imaging Simulation of Bistatic Synthetic Aperture Radar and Its Polarimetric Analysis

Employing the 3-D mapping and projection algorithm (MPA), an imaging simulation of bistatic synthetic aperture radar (BISAR) observation over a complex scenario is developed. Based on the explicit expression of the point target response of stripmap BISAR imaging, raw data are efficiently generated from the scattering map precalculated by MPA. Some examples of BISAR image simulation are studied. The polarimetric characteristics of a BISAR image are then discussed. It is found that some typical polarimetric parameters such as Cloude's $alpha$, $beta$, and $gamma$ might become unable to describe the scattering mechanism under bistatic observation. A transform of unified bistatic polar bases for a BISAR image is proposed. The parameters $\alpha$, $\beta$ , and $\gamma$ are modified to retain the property of orientation independence in the bistatic circumstance. Analysis of simulated images shows that the redefined $\alpha$, $\beta$ , and $\gamma$ after the unified bistatic polar bases transform well describe different scattering mechanisms in BISAR imaging. It provides a primary tool for BISAR image interpretation and terrain classification. Reference

A Multipurpose Radar Simulation Package: QuickBeam

Haynes, J. M., Marchand, R. T., Luo, Z., Bodas-Salcedo, A. and Stephens, G. L., 2007: A Multipurpose Radar Simulation Package: QuickBeam. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 88(11), pp. 1723–1727.

Abstract. The launch of the CloudSat cloud radar has provided some of the first near-global views of the three-dimensional structure of clouds from space. To evaluate clouds in numerical models and compare them to the observations made by CloudSat, it is useful to have a tool that converts modeled clouds to radar returns that might be viewed by a radar system on a satellite passing over the model domain. QuickBeam is a user-friendly radar simulation package that performs this function and is freely available to the meteorological community. The workings of the simulator are briefly described and several applications of the simulator to numerical models are demonstrated.

Abstract | PDF (2.55M)

The source code is written in Fortran 90 and is thus highly portable to a wide variety of platforms. The package and a more technically oriented guide to the simulator can be downloaded from http://cloudsat.atmos.colostate.edu/radarsim