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Space-based synthetic aperture radar (SAR) can be affected by the ionosphere, particularly at L-band and below. A technique is described that exploits the reduction in SAR image contrast to measure the strength of ionospheric turbulence parameter C k L. The theory describing the effect of the ionosphere on the SAR point spread function (PSF) and the consequent effect on clutter is reviewed and extended. This theory can then be used to determine C k L from both corner reflectors (CRs) and K-distributed SAR clutter. Measuring the K-distribution order parameter allows C k L values much lower than those that defocus the image to be determined. The results of an experiment in which a CR on Ascension Island was repeatedly imaged by PALSAR-2 in the spotlight mode during the scintillation season are described. The value of C k L obtained by measuring the clutter was compared with that obtained from a nearby CR. The correlation between the two was good using a median value of the spectral index p. This correlation was improved by using the measured value of p derived from the CR PSF. The technique works for any homogeneous K-distributed SAR clutter and is thus applicable to extra-terrestrial bodies as well as PALSAR-2 images of Ascension Island.

Ultrahigh frequency space-based synthetic aperture radar (SAR) can suffer from the degrading effects of a scintillating ionosphere which modulates both the phase and the amplitude of the radar signal. In this paper, we use Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signals to synthesize an L-band SAR point spread function (PSF). The process of transforming the GNSS signal to the equivalent SAR PSF is described. The synthesized PSF is used to explore the possibility of using a phase correction determined from a point target in a SAR image to correct the ionospheric degradation. GNSS data recorded on equatorial Ascension Island during scintillation events are used to test the feasibility of this approach by applying a phase correction to one GNSS receiver from another located along a magnetic east-west baseline. The peak-to-sidelobe ratios of the synthesized L-band SAR point spread functions before and after the correction are compared, and it is shown that this approach improves the L-band PSF over distances of~3000 m in the ionosphere, corresponding to 6000 m on the ground.

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