Controllable maritime scenarios have become a central issue in the research of new\ud applications of SAR imaging to vessel monitoring systems. Numerical tools such as\ud GRECOSAR, a SAR simulator of complex targets, are able to provide suitable test-beds as long as the model of the targets (vessels) and the sea surface resemble to what is expected in real maritime\ud scenes. This paper presents the validation of SAR simulated images from GRECOSAR while using a dynamic and multi-harmonic elevation model of the sea surface. The simulations are\ud carried out for generic C- and X-band SAR sensors. The results of the co-polar cha\ud nnels are compared with K,lognormal, Weibull and Rayleigh distributions, which are commonly used to describe statistics of real SAR images of the sea surface. The results show that the clutter has statistics clos\ud er to the K and Weibull distributions, suggesting that the elevation model presented can provide a more realistic approach in simulating SAR images of maritime scenariosPeer ReviewedPostprint (published version

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In recent years, spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) technology has been considered as a complement to cooperative vessel surveillance systems thanks to its imaging capabilities. In this paper, a processing chain is presented to explore the potential of using basic stripmap single-look complex (SLC) SAR images of vessels for the automatic extraction of their dimensions and heading. Local autofocus is applied to the vessels' SAR signatures to compensate blurring artefacts in the azimuth direction, improving both their image quality and their estimated dimensions. For the heading, the orientation ambiguities of the vessels' SAR signatures are solved using the direction of their ground-range velocity from the analysis of their Doppler spectra. Preliminary results are provided using five images of vessels from SLC RADARSAT-2 stripmap images. These results have shown good agreement with their respective ground-truth data from Automatic Identification System (AIS) records at the time of the acquisitions.