| This thesis describes the development and testing of a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) signal simulator that is capable of generating ground clutter consistent with the empirical K clutter model. Simulation of K-distributed clutter has previously been confined to direct image simulation, limiting its use in SAR applications such as moving target detection.; To be useful for evaluating present and future SAR systems over a variety of applications, the SAR simulator is designed for simulation of both airborne and satellite-borne platforms with time-varying dynamics, configurable antennae and realistic target models, including representing extended areas with discrete scattering centres. Theory, experiments and analysis show that randomly locating and imposing correlated gamma statistics on these scattering centres will give K-distributed clutter in the simulated SAR image.; The utility of the SAR simulator is showcased in a moving target experiment against a background of simulated clutter. |
