Surface Clutter Suppression Techniques for Ice Sounding Radars: Analysis of Airborne Data

Abstract

For the ice sounding of Antarctica from space, a P-band radar at 435 MHz is the only option which complies with present ITU regulations. At this frequency the ice surface cannot be considered smooth, leading to high ambiguous returns. Besides simulation, data acquired by airborne sensors are used to evaluate algorithms for surface clutter suppression and mitigation possibilities of ionospheric inuence. This paper presents rst an analysis of sub-surface along track focussing in the presence of azimuth slopes. For across-track clutter suppression the multiple-aperture technique in nadir looking geometry is considered, in a repeat-pass conguration as the most general case. Airborne data acquired by the E-SAR system of DLR during ICESAR 2007 campaign are investigated to address feasibility questions for the spaceborne case.