Advanced Methods for Simulation and Performance Analysis of Planetary Radar Sounder Data

Radar sounders (RS) are low frequency remote sensing instruments that profile the shallow subsurface of planetary bodies providing valuable scientific information. The prediction of the RS performance and the interpretation of the target properties from the RS data are challenging due to the complex electromagnetic interaction between many acquisition variables. RS simulations address this issue by forward modeling this complex interaction and simulating the radar response. However, existing simulators require detailed and subjective modeling of the target in order to produce realistic radargrams. For less-explored planetary bodies, such information is difficult to obtain with high accuracy. Moreover, the high computational requirements of conventional electromagnetic simulators prohibit the simulation of a large number of radargrams. Thus, it is not possible to generate and analyze a database of simulated radargrams representative of the acquisition scenario that would be very useful for both the RS design and the data analysis phase. To overcome these difficulties and to produce realistic simulated radargrams, this thesis proposes two novel approaches to the simulation and analysis of the radar response. The first contribution is a simulation approach that leverages the data available over geological analogs of the investigated target and reprocesses them to obtain the simulated radargrams. The second contribution is a systematic approach to the generation and analysis of a database of simulated radargrams representing the possible scenarios during the RS acquisition. The database is analyzed to predict the RS performance, to design the instrument parameters, and to support the development of automatic target detection algorithms. To demonstrate the proposed techniques the thesis addresses their use in two future RS instruments, which are at different phases of development: (1) the Radar for Icy Moons Exploration (RIME) and (2) a RS for Earth observation of the polar ice caps. The first contribution focuses on the analysis of the detectability of complex tectonic targets on the icy moons of Jupiter by RIME by simulating the radar response of 3D target models. The second contribution presents a feasibility study for an Earth orbiting RS based on the proposed simulation approaches.