The potential of low-frequency SAR systems for mapping ionospheric TEC distributions

Ionospheric propagation effects have a significant impact on the signal properties of low-frequency synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems. Range delay, interferometric phase bias, range defocusing, and Faraday rotation are the most prominent ones. All the effects are a function of the so-called total electron content (TEC). Methods based on two-frequency global positioning system observations allow measuring TEC in the ionosphere with coarse spatial resolution only. In this letter, the potential of broadband L-band SAR systems for ionospheric TEC mapping is studied. As a basis, the dispersive nature of the ionosphere and its effects on broadband microwave radiation are theoretically derived and analyzed. It is shown that phase advance and group delay can be measured by interferometric and correlation techniques, respectively. The achievable accuracy suffices in mapping small-scale ionospheric TEC disturbances. A differential TEC estimator that separates ionospheric from tropospheric contributions is proposed.