Atmospheric Correction of Arc-Rail Type GB-SAR Using Refractive Index of Air

In this paper, an atmospheric effect of repetitive measurements of X-band (9.65 GHz) arc-rail type GB-SAR (ArcSAR) system was quantitatively analyzed. Four artificial triangular trihedral corner reflectors as stationary targets for getting stable back scattered signal during 43 hours continually. The results of the analysis showed that the phase of those stationary targets had changed maximum of 5 radian (12.4 mm) and total RMS error had was 1.62 radian (4 mm) during 65 repeated measuring time. The refractive index of air which was calculated using the temperature, humidity and pressure of atmosphere showed very close relationship with the phase difference. We could check the atmospheric correction was fulfilled by the correction of an atmospheric effect using refractive index during the selected 16 hours period showed that RMS error was dropped from 1.74 radian (4.3 mm) to 0.10 radian (0.24 mm).