Ionospheric Correction by Means of Coherent Scatterers

The operation of low frequency SAR sensors on space-borne platforms is perturbed by the presence of Earth’s ionosphere. The purpose of this paper is to outline an initial methodology exploiting the potential of Coherent Scatterers (CSs) for the estimation and correction of the different effects induced by ionospheric disturbances on SAR images. Based on the high spectral correlation and the point-like scattering behavior that characterize CSs, we discuss and propose the estimation and compensation of different ionospheric effects, and assess their performance by using real SAR data and simulated ionospheric disturbances.