A SAR Target Image Simulation Method With DNN Embedded to Calculate Electromagnetic Reflection

Electromagnetic (EM) scattering calculation is a very important part of most synthetic aperture radar (SAR) target image simulation methods. It affects the intensity of the radar echo signal to a great extent, thus affecting the quality of the final simulation image. EM reflection models are usually approximate formulas derived under certain assumptions. The errors between these models and the actual situation can cause significant differences between simulated images and real images. To solve this problem, we propose a novel modified SAR target image simulation framework, in which the deep neural network (DNN) is embedded to calculate the EM reflection, so that the DNN can directly learn and fit the EM reflection models from real SAR images. First, the intensity calculation of radar signal in a single reflection is separated from the cumulative calculation of multiple radar reflection signals intensity in each pixel. Thus, the approximate calculation formulas of EM reflection can be replaced with the DNN models. Next, the DNN model is trained with the backpropagation algorithm to learn the actual EM reflection model from real SAR images. Finally, the fitted EM reflection models and an image post-processing model are applied to simulate images of the target under different imaging angles. In the simulation framework, the functions of the neural network models are limited to calculating the reflection coefficient and adding sidelobe and speckle noise. The imaging model is still the original simulation method based on ray tracing, which ensures the correctness and generalization of the simulation method. Experiments show that the proposed simulation method can significantly improve the quality of the simulation image. When the image is normalized to [0, 1], the minimum mean square error between the simulated SAR images and the real images of the Sandia laboratory implementation of cylinders target can reach 0.003. The visualization results of the DNN models show that the fitted reflection coefficient calculation curve and the convolution kernel used for image post-processing are consistent with the laws in the theoretical model. In addition, when the proposed method is used to simulate complex targets, the similarity of simulation images can also be significantly improved.