Generation and Validation of a Simulated Radar Ground-Target Database

We generate simulated (I)SAR imagery of a number of ground vehicles with the program Spectre [1] and validate these against turntable (I)SAR imagery from trials. Spectre employs a Physical Optics / Geometrical Optics (PO-GO) or shooting-bouncing-ray high frequency physics model. This approach is employed as standard for high-frequency electromagnetic scattering calculations from large complex bodies, so it is thought that the results have wide relevance. The effects of CAD model complexity and simulation convergence are considered. We evaluate the suitability of the simulated data for use in a database for various kinds of ATR methodologies. There are difficulties in achieving real-time simulations for ATR so we discuss the alternative route of pre-forming a scattering amplitude data-dome for forming monostatic imagery in real-time.