Generalization of the Van Cittert--Zernike theorem: observers moving with respect to sources

TL;DR

This paper extends the Van Cittert--Zernike theorem to account for moving observers, showing that observer motion-induced delays cancel Doppler effects, thus validating current passive Earth observation methods.

Contribution

It provides a first-principles derivation of the generalized theorem for moving observers, incorporating virtual baselines and showing Doppler effects cancel out.

Findings

Observer motion leads to pixel-dependent Doppler shifts.

Delay time due to motion cancels Doppler effect.

Standard imaging systems' neglect of Doppler is justified.

Abstract

The use of the Van Cittert--Zernike theorem for the formulation of the visibility function in satellite-based Earth observation with passive radiometers does not take into account the relative motion of the observer (the satellite antenna) with respect to sources of the electro-magnetic fields at the surface of the Earth. The motion of the observer leads on the one hand to a more complex signal due to a pixel-dependent Doppler shift that is neglected in the standard derivation of the Van Cittert--Zernike theorem, but on the other hand one may hope that it could be employed for a temporal aperture synthesis, where virtual baselines are created through the motion of the satellite. Here, we generalize the formulation of the aperture synthesis concept to the case of observers moving with respect to the sources, and to the correlation of fields measured at times that differ by the travel time of the observer along a virtual baseline. Our derivation is based on first principles, starting with the wave propagation in the Earth reference frame of electro-magnetic fields arising from incoherent current sources, and Lorentz transforming the fields into the reference frame of the satellite. Our detailed study leads to the remarkable conclusion that the delay time due to observer motion cancels exactly the Doppler effect. This justifies the neglect of the Doppler effect in existing imaging systems based on the standard Van Cittert--Zernike theorem.