Accuracy and Error Analysis of Vector Measurement of Ocean Surface Current by Multi-Aperture Along-Track Interferometric SAR

Abstract

The ocean surface current vector contains velocity and direction information, and its acquisition method has important research value in marine applications. Multi-aperture along-track interferometric (MA-ATI) SAR is a novel method of current vector detection. However, due to the lack of real experimental data validation, complex marine environment and diverse system parameters have an uncertain impact on the current measurement ability of MA-ATI SAR. Therefore it is necessary to analyze the measurement accuracy and error of this method in theory. Based on the current measurement principle of MA-ATI SAR, this article deduces and establishes the accuracy and error simulation model, and analyzes the influence of radar parameters and marine environment on the velocity and direction results. In the simulation results, the airborne MIMO-SAR radar parameters is more suitable to use MA-ATI method for accurate current measurement, and the accuracy of current measurement is higher for the current with high velocity and direction close to azimuth. It is found that the variation of wind direction will lead to obvious errors in MA-ATI current results, and it is pointed out that accurate current results can be obtained by iteratively correcting the velocity error of sub-apertures using M4S model.

Keywords

• Multi-aperture along-track interferometric (MA-ATI)
• current vector
• current measurement accuracy
• current measurement error