Studies of the Interferometric Phase and Doppler Spectra of Sea Surface Backscattering Using Numerically Simulated Low Grazing Angle Backscatter Data.

摘要

Range-resolved interferometric phase and Doppler spectra are two subjects of interest with regard to the retrieval of sea surface height profiles from coherent marine radar measurements. The studies of this dissertation attempt to improve understanding of the properties and associated measurement errors of these quantities through the use of numerically simulated low-grazing-angle backscatter data.;In the first part of the dissertation, studies of the interferometric phase are described. Backscattered fields computed using the method of moments for one dimensional ocean-like surface profiles are used to examine statistical properties of the single-look interferometric phase estimator, in order to investigate the applicability of standard expectations for height retrieval accuracy in this problem. The results show that shadowing and multipath propagation effects cause errors in interferometric phase estimation beyond those caused by speckle effects alone. In addition, the decorrelation between the fields received at two antennas is found to be impacted by shadowing and multipath propagation effects, making standard models for this quantity less applicable as well. These results show that modeling the expected performance of interferometric sea surface height retrieval approaches at low grazing angles is difficult.;The second part of the dissertation involves studies of the range-resolved Doppler spectra at low-grazing-angles. Backscattered fields are computed for a single realization of a one-dimensional ocean-like surface profile as the realization evolves in time. Transformation into the range-Doppler domain enables examination of properties of the resulting Doppler spectra (for both HH and VV polarizations) and their relationship to properties of the surface profile. In general, a strong correspondence between the long wave orbital velocity of the surface and the Doppler centroid frequency is observed for visible portions of the surface, as well as some evidence of relationships between the width of the Doppler spectrum and variations of the orbital velocity in time at a given range point. Evidence of similar relationships even in some shadowed portions of the surface is also provided. Doppler spectra from HH and VV polarizations are qualitatively similar in most respects, although the portion of shadowed surface points from which Doppler information is available is somewhat larger in VV polarization. A further examination is conducted using backscattered fields computed with a "single scattering" method that neglects shadowing and any multiple scattering effects. The remarkable similarities observed in Doppler spectra for the complete and single scattering models even in some shadowed portions of the surface suggests that non-line-of-sight propagation effects do not significantly in fluence Doppler properties in such regions.;The studies in this dissertation provide improved understandings of range-resolved interferometric phase and Doppler spectra at low grazing angles. These results provide new information for the design of coherent marine radars for the retrieval of sea surface profiles.