Simulation of ship wakes image by an along-track interferometric SAR

A mathematical model that allows simulations of the image of waves in ship wakes by either regular or interferometric airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR or INSAR) is described. The three-component velocity field induced at the ocean surface by a moving ship serves as the input to the model. The simulations take into account the effect of temporal variations of the wave field in the wake on the INSAR imaging by the velocity bunching mechanism. The model also accounts for the scanning distortion of the image. The developed algorithm allows study of the visibility of the ship wave wake by a regular SAR or by INSAR for arbitrary imaging parameters, as well as for different ship sizes and ship velocity vectors relative to the platform flight track. Various patterns of ship wake images obtained by numerical simulations are presented.