MOCEM V4 – radar simulation of ship at sea for SAR and ISAR applications

Inhalt:
Known as a useful tool to simulate SAR image, the MOCEM software has been recently extended. Now, its V4 version includes new features to simulate radar raw data of a maritime scene composed of a ship above a dynamic sea surface and land or infrastructures behind the coastline. Moreover, the software is now able to compute raw data, not only for SAR purposes but, more generally, for ISAR applications considering fixed or mobile carriers. This paper describes the latest developments that are focused on real time computation of SAR and ISAR images. It is now possible to render the delocalization, defocusing and deformations encountered in images when dealing with complex and realistic ship motions. The GPU technique has been used for intensive computation. As an example, a range profile (IQ signal with Doppler in phase) can be produced in less than 10 ms. If it is not yet real time compared to a real radar acquisition rate, it opens the way to stimulate real processing and, in a near future, it may be possible to produce signals in real time for HWIL - Hardware In the Loop - testbeds.