Electromagnetic Model for SAR Imaging of Natural Surfaces

In this paper an innovative, completely fractal-based model describing the SAR imaging process of natural scenes is presented. In the hypothesis that a small slope regime can be assumed for the surface, we evaluate here, in closed form, the Power Spectral Densities of the SAR image. The proposed model effectively accounts for the effect of finite sensor resolutions and for the peculiarity of SAR acquisition geometry. Moreover, it is shown how the inversion of this direct model allows us to retrieve the fractal dimension of the observed surface. Significant experimental results, validating the theoretical conclusions, are also shown.