SAR-simulation of large urban scenes using an extended ray tracing approach

Simulated SAR images can be used for a wide variety of purposes such as classification, building reconstruction and the training of SAR image analysts. In this paper, a SAR simulation tool based on an extended ray tracing approach is introduced. Both phase and amplitude of the returned energy from the scene are simulated, making the coherent integration of the different returns and the simulation of interferometric image pairs possi-ble. This paper focuses on the simulation of urban scenes and large infrastructure elements such as bridges. The simulation of such extended objects poses challenges in memory consumption as well as calculation time necessary for the simulation. These challenges and ways to overcome them are discussed and sample images of large scenes are shown.