Suppressing the effects of ionospheric scintillation on geosynchronous SAR by optimised orbit design

An L band geosynchronous synthetic aperture radar (GEO SAR) will be sensitive to ionosphere scintillation because of its low carrier frequency. Meanwhile, because of the high orbit, GEO SAR has a higher probability to meet ionospheric scintillation. In this paper, we propose an orbit strategy for eliminating the impacts of ionospheric scintillation. It is realized by selecting a proper orbit element (time past perigee) to avoid imaging for the sensitive region of ionospheric scintillation during the eruption time interval of ionospheric scintillation with the highest probability. Finally, the simulation based on systems tool kit (STK) software was conducted to verify the effectiveness of the method.