A Virtual Environment Software to Position Corner Reflectors for Assisting in SAR Sensor Calibration

Tak Li, Raffaella Guida

2021

Abstract

Synthetic aperture radars (SAR) have been used for decades to observe activity and changes on the Earth’s surface. This type of satellite imaging can be used under any weather and light condition as it does not depend on the Sun’s illumination and is not obstructed by clouds, water vapours, etc. As any other instrument, SAR systems need to be calibrated. External calibration can be applied, for example, to SAR sensors on spaceborne platforms. In this case, an external target point, such as a corner reflector (CR) is placed in the location of imaging and its Radar Cross Section (RCS), the physical property measured by SARs, is recorded with the final aim of comparing it with its expected theoretical value and calculate then the calibration constant. Deploying a CR correctly requires experience and knowledge of theoretical conditions to maximize its RCS (that range from the selection of the site and shape of the CR to specific values for the azimuth and elevation angles). In this paper, a Virtual Reality (VR) environment has been developed in Unity to assist students/users in visualising the process mentioned above and being able to find the optimal CR orientation and placement. The program currently works with SAR data from the Copernicus constellation

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Li T. and Guida R. (2021). A Virtual Environment Software to Position Corner Reflectors for Assisting in SAR Sensor Calibration. In Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Computer Supported Education - Volume 2: CSEDU, ISBN 978-989-758-502-9, pages 177-183. DOI: 10.5220/0010404401770183

in Bibtex Style

@conference{csedu21,
author={Tak Li and Raffaella Guida},
title={A Virtual Environment Software to Position Corner Reflectors for Assisting in SAR Sensor Calibration},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Computer Supported Education - Volume 2: CSEDU,},
year={2021},
pages={177-183},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0010404401770183},
isbn={978-989-758-502-9},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Computer Supported Education - Volume 2: CSEDU,
TI - A Virtual Environment Software to Position Corner Reflectors for Assisting in SAR Sensor Calibration
SN - 978-989-758-502-9
AU - Li T.
AU - Guida R.
PY - 2021
SP - 177
EP - 183
DO - 10.5220/0010404401770183