Necessity analysis of echo generation in SAR simulation for forest application

SAR simulation for forest application has been proved as an effective tool to provide scattering models and simulated SAR data for the research of forest retrieval algorithms. The common method of SAR simulation is combining the scattering coefficients with the ideal Point Spread Function to generate images directly without echo generation. However, when there are non-ideal factors in remote sensing system, the simulated images will be too ideal to agree with the real characteristics of the remote sensing systems. In this paper, two kinds of non-ideal situations including radar motion deviations and tree swaying are considered and compared on the features of Point Spread Functions and simulated images via the common method and the echo generation method. The results illustrate the necessity of the echo generation process in SAR simulation to avoid losing accuracy when inversing forest parameters.