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The characterization of the sea clutter spatial and statistical properties is a challenging problem for improving the detection performances of any radar system confronted with strong sea clutter perturbations. On the one hand, the use of radar scatterometry made it possible to precisely determine the behavior of the sea surface backscattering coefficient and to confirm electromagnetic models. On the other hand, the imaging of the ocean by radar has been studied extensively and has led to a mature theory of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imaging of the ocean. Nevertheless the manipulations of SAR data are handicapped by the size of data. In order to analyze SAR data, we need a very flexible tool well adapted to these data. This paper briefly presents the inner functioning of a software (i.e. the different choices of class organization and how it is convenient to use them) based on a multilook philosophy (spectral sub bands processing) and on Octave script. Then we specify the type of operations and processings, we can perform using this software. Two examples of use are presented which show the easiness of use of this software.

International audience; The interpretation of radar data would ideally require extensive and numerous observations. However, the number of observations is limited by the difficulty and the cost of acquiring ground truth and radar data. On the other hand, numerical models can provide a wide range of situations, both in inputs and in outputs. More precisely, they have to provide radiometric, polarimetric, and interferometric simulations and be applicable to various forested areas (high density, high/low moisture, inhomogeneous area, etc.) and radar configurations (low/high frequency, bistatic observation, etc.). This paper is dedicated to the presentation of the capabilities of a descriptive coherent scattering model (COSMO) applied to the electromagnetic study of the backscattering by forested areas. Improvements have been implemented in order to produce in output a radar image, which can be treated with the same polarimetric and interferometric tools as those applied to real synthetic aperture radar images. Thus, comparisons are possible. COSMO has been widely tested from P- to L- bands, over temperate and tropical forests and applied to radiometry, polarimetry, and interferometry. It appears finally as an efficient simulating tool to carry out parametric studies and to analyze how the total scattered field is built from canonical mechanisms and individual scatterer contributions.

In this paper, we develop the concept of a new ocean SAR imaging process simulator. We intend to come up with a simulator more complete than those which have been developed until now. Indeed, in addition to the large number of oceanic and atmospheric phenomena considered, the simulator should lead to cope with various radar configurations (spaceborne, airborne, grazing-angle). The simulator is based on several interconnected units allowing to model the sea surface features and their interactions with the radar electromagnetic waves. We develop the hydrodynamic modulation of the short waves by the long waves which are at the core of the process. The peculiarities of different type of radars and radar carriers are also included.