SEMUS - An Open-Source RF-Level SAR Emulator for Interference Modelling
in Spaceborne Applications
Abstract
Earth observation has a crucial role in understanding and monitoring our
planet’s health and changes. Spaceborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR)
has become a valuable technology for Earth monitoring, leading to a
massive expansion of satellite launches. However, within the limited
radio frequency (RF) band, Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) poses a
significant challenge for SAR technology. RFI can have a significant
impact on the overall system performance and particularly on SAR image
quality. To analyze and solve the interference problem, a
simulator/emulator is required at the RF level to emulate and analyze
the effects of different RFI sources on the final focused spaceborne SAR
image. This paper presents an open-source RF-level SAR emulator for
spaceborne applications called SEMUS. SEMUS is an integrated end-to-end
framework for realistic spaceborne SAR scenarios that can generate raw
RF data (Level-0) for an arbitrary scene and reconstruct the final
SAR-focused image (Level-1). Moreover, the emulator is capable of
injecting arbitrary RFI waveforms into the raw SAR data. The simulation
results prove SEMUS’s ability to generate high-quality Level-0 SAR data
above Melbourne, Australia. Affirming its capability, SEMUS is able to
reconstruct Level-1 free of RFI or contaminated with interference.